DIDSBURY -- Commercial and industrial property owners will be getting a municipal tax break this year while rates for residential property owners are increasing.
The 2019 Tax Rate Bylaw was approved by council during the May 14 regular meeting.
It includes the previously proposed two per cent increase to the residential mill rate and a two per cent decrease to non-residential, while leaving the vacant tax rates the same, and was carried in the May 14 tax rate bylaw motion.
"It's never council's plan to unnecessarily raise the tax rate, and we are committed to consistently finding ways to not only cut expenses but also to increase revenues, which would, in turn, reduce the amount of revenue generated by taxes," said Didsbury mayor Rhonda Hunter.
"All councils would like to maintain a zero per cent tax rate increase; however, for this year we are satisfied with the tax rate,” she said, adding the non-residential decrease reflects council's commitment to reduce the impact on small business.
Alberta’s down-turned economy has taken a toll, town officials point out.
“There has been a decrease to all types of property assessments within Didsbury generally due to the economic outlook in Alberta,” says a town press release.
The value of property in Didsbury dropped by more than $18 million to $563,566,940 compared to the previous year’s $581,996,520 total.
But due to the drop in assessment values, property owners across the board are likely to see a slight decrease in the municipal portion of their property tax bill compared to 2018.
This would range from $7 for the average industrial property owner, to $37 for the average residential property owner, to $71 for the average commercial property owner, according to a council briefing note.
Hunter said that council, together with administration, developed the operational budget over several months, eventually reducing the amount the town needed from taxation to balance the budget. The town will be taking in $84,954 less in property taxes than it did last year.
It is also spending less than it did last year.
This year’s operating budget is $11,062,826, down more than $2 million from last year’s $13,285,407.
To fund it, the town expects $7,062,826 in revenue from non-municipal tax sources while $4,837,046 is to be raised by general municipal property taxation.
The general municipal tax rate for residential/farm land has been set at 8.4660 mills, up from last year's 8.3000. Non-residential is 8.91800 mills, down from 9.10 in 2018. Vacant residential land and vacant non-residential land stays the same as last year at 13 and 14 mills respectively.
When other portions of the tax bill -- namely requisitions to Mountain View Seniors’ Housing and Alberta Schools Foundation Fund (ASFF) -- are factored in, the overall bill is expected to be higher.
Due to the timing of the provincial election and the budget not expected until the fall, council chose to base the Alberta Schools Foundation Fund (ASFF) on an average of the last five years.
The ASFF requisition for residential/farm land, based on the five-year average, is $1,343,697. For non-residential it is $247,016. The tax rate for ASFF is 2.7196 mills for residential/farm land, while for non-residential it's 3.6325.
The Mountain View Seniors’ Housing requisition increased from $95,672 in 2018 to $151,361 in 2019, an increase in the tax rate from 0.1648 (2018) to 0.2692 (2019).
Taking into account the combined tax rate, including requisitions, the average residential property owner's bill will be approximately $21 more than the prior year, or $1.75 per month, according to a briefing note to council.
