Education property taxes in Mountain View County will jump by $800,000 this year, corporate services director Greg Wiens told council's policies and priorities committee last week.The amount, announced as part of the 2012 provincial budget, represents an 8.2 per cent increase from last year's education levy.ìIt is significantly more than we were expecting from the provincial budget,î Wiens said, noting that the increase usually comes in at about three per cent.Without further cuts on the municipal side, the education tax hike would mean a five per cent increase in residential property taxes, he added.Education property taxes collected by the county will total about $11 million this year, compared to just over $10.2 million in 2011.On the plus side, Wiens reported, linear assessment numbers are slightly higher than anticipated during the budget process.ìThat will give us some additional revenue, in the neighbourhood of a couple hundred thousand dollars, so that will help,î he said.In December, council passed an $18.5-million interim operating and capital budget for 2012 after coming up $1.4 million short of a balanced budget following a series of special P&P budget meetings during the fall.Wiens said last week that he plans to bring a final budget forward at the end of March.In other business, administration reported last week that tenders had closed the previous Friday for the contract to complete the Netook Road (Twp. Rd. 334) reconstruction project, with the low bid from Central City Asphalt, based out of Blackfalds, coming in at $882,815.The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.2 million. It was budgeted at $1.5 million.Seven bids were received, all within a range of $200,000, said Ryan Morrison, manager of infrastructure projects and technical services.The project, which includes basing and chipsealing between range roads 20 and 23, has to be completed by Sept. 15 under the terms of the contract, Morrison said.
