MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County property owners have once again made good use of the municipality’s early tax payment incentive, paying nearly $50 million in advance of the June 28 deadline, council heard.
A report on the 2024 payment incentive program was presented during the July 10 council meeting.
As per the county’s property tax administration bylaw No. 27/23, a reduction of 1.5 per cent is offered if taxes are paid in full by the last business day of June.
Mountain View County collected $27,236,554 in advance of the June 28, 2024 deadline and $26,635,718 in the same period in 2023.
Outstanding tax receivable at June 28 was $21,765,917, compared with $20,118,666 in 2023.
Taxes collected by June 28 were 56 per cent of the total, compared with 57 per cent at the same time last year.
The total number of tax rolls in 2024 was 11,829, compared with 11,820 in 2023. In all, 49 per cent of 2024 rolls were collected by June 28 this year, compared with 50 per cent during at the same time last year.
“Primary figures indicate that property taxes collected by the tax incentive deadline were similar to last year,” chief administrative officer Jeff Holmes told council. “All notable oil and gas companies that remitted last year also did so for 2024, with an additional large oil and gas company remitting by the June 28 tax incentive deadline that had not participated last year.”
Reeve Angela Aalbers asked Holmes how ratepayers and the county are helped by tax payment incentive.
“It benefits taxpayers by providing them with a discount on their taxes,” he said. “And it assists the county with cash flow with most of our money spent over the summer construction season.
“Getting the tax money received before the end of June assists us in cash flow planning and in ensuring we can pay our major construction bills when they start rolling in over the summer months.”
A final report on the 2024 incentive program will be made after the county receives any remaining post-dated cheques mailed before the June 28 deadline, council heard.
Council carried a motion accepting the payment incentive report as information.
Council sends fire deployment funds to reserve account
In other news from the July 10 meeting, council approved the addition of $206,100 to the general fire reserve resulting from 2023 provincial deployment revenue and 2023 budget reconciliations.
Mountain View County has mutual aid agreements with area urban municipalities that outline the manner in which revenue received from provincial deployments is allocated.
“Prioritization is given to payment of any firefighters that attend, as well as any expenses incurred during the deployment or expenses required to return the apparatus back to pre-deployment status,” said Holmes.
“Any remaining revenue is split based on the ownership percentage of any apparatus that attended the deployment.
“Annually each urban municipality provides a reconciliation of the actuals of the fire department and return any excess funds back to the county in accordance with their respective fire services agreement.”
Funds from 2023 received from the urban municipalities include Town of Olds provincial deployment $21,700, Town of Olds 2023 budget reconciliation $17,882, Town of Didsbury provincial deployment $68,300, Town of Didsbury 2023 budget reconciliation $29,466, Carstairs fire revenue $62,580, and Town of Carstairs 2023 budget reconciliation $6,171.
Council passed a motion approving the allocation to the reserve account.
