Mountain View County's policies and priorities committee has received the 2015 assessment year market summary report, which outlines an overall 1.44 per cent increase.
The move came during the committee's regularly scheduled meeting on April 6.
The report details assessments in five property classes: residential, non-residential, machinery and equipment, farmland, and linear.
Assessment is the process of placing a dollar value on a property for taxation purposes, and taxation is the process of applying a tax rate to a property's assessed value to determine the actual taxes payable by the property owner, the report states.
In 2015, total assessment values increased in three of the five property classes, resulting in a total taxable assessment increase of 2.56 per cent overall growth, with 1.44 per cent attributed to real growth, the report states.
In 2014, there was a 3.14 per cent overall growth, with 2.06 per cent attributed to real growth.
Residential assessment in 2015 increased by 5.52 per cent, rising from $2,096,788,140 to $2,212,587,390.
For the residential assessments a total of 304 sales were used in the analysis. Those sales occurred between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015.
In the Water Valley area, assessments increased 1.78 per cent; north of Olds, 3.13 per cent; south of Carstairs, 4.39 per cent; east of Didsbury, 6.16 per cent; east of Sundre, 5.01 per cent; east of Elkton, 5.22 per cent; and east of the QE II, 5.61 per cent.
Non-residential increased 5.39 per cent, jumping from $299,245,290 to $305,875,450.
Machinery and equipment decreased 0.78 per cent, falling from $498,167,760 to $494,269,260
Farmland increased by 0.005 per cent, rising from $158,885,350 to $158,893,510. The total change was $8,160.
Farmland is not assessed at market value in Alberta. Instead it is assessed using a provincially regulated base rate, which is currently $350 per acre for 100 per cent productive land.
Linear assessment dropped by 4.22 per cent, from $1,480,444,600 to $1,418,043,180.
Linear property includes pipelines, wells, electric power systems, electric power generation, telecommunications systems and cable distribution undertakings, the report states.
The assessment process for linear uses information from regulators such as the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Alberta Utilities Commission, and applies a rate to the length of a pipeline, a power line or telephone line or the depth of a well.
Regarding wells, the report said that four new wells were drilled in 2015 in the county, compared with 105 in 2014. The assessment of wells saw a decrease of 5.56 per cent.
Pipeline market growth declined by $69,923,580 or 9.79 per cent, totalling $641,131,590.
In Mountain View County the tax rate is calculated by dividing the county budget by the total assessment base.
Deliberations on the budget are scheduled to continue this week.
“We haven't set a mill rate because we are waiting to see the provincial budget with the school tax rate, and then once we know what that is we will be able to figure out what the overall mill rate will be,” said Deputy Reeve Patricia McKean.
Coun. Al Kemmere said it's important that residents understand that the assessments were made between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015.
The committee received the report for information.
