OLDS - Municipal property tax rates in Olds are staying the same as 2023, but increased property assessment as well as requisitions from other entities means tax bills are going up.
The town's council approved its 2024 tax rate bylaw last week.
The estimated municipal expenditures and transfers set out in the budget for the Town of Olds for 2024 total $34,703,969.
Revenues and transfers from all sources other than taxation is estimated at $18,298,765 and the balance of $16,405,204 is to be raised by general municipal taxation.
About $11,096,007 in taxes will go to the Town of Olds to support its operations, $4,655,928 is destined for the Alberta School Foundation Fund, $657,916 for Mountain View Seniors' Housing requisition and $1,230 for the designated industrial requisition.
The average assessment for single family residential properties for 2024 is $375,942 ($339,230 in 2023).This is an assessment increase of 10.82 per cent.
The average assessment of a non-residential commercial property for 2024 is $1,000,314 ($966,574 in 2023). This is an assessment increase of 5.79 per cent on average. While an increase in property valuations generally has positive impacts for property owners, the additional value also comes with additional tax implications.
The average residential property’s tax bill will rise $13.33 per month while the average commercial / industrial property tax bill will increase by nearly $70 per month. This is 65 per cent attributable to the provincial education tax, the town's finance director, Sheena Linderman pointed out.
The amount the province is collecting in 2024 from Olds property owners for the education tax this year is an increase of 9.5 per cent.
Educational property tax requisitions come from the province and are based on equalized assessment. Equalized assessment is based on assessment values submitted to the province two years previously. The municipality then applies the requisition to its actual assessment.
With the differentiation in years of assessment this can result in large fluctuations generally within the non-residential assessment class.
For 2024, the average residential property will see a decrease of $50 for the education tax with the average non-residential property seeing an increase of $561.
The requisition from Mountain View Seniors' Housing for 2024 is $656,275 (2023 - $622,180), an increase of 5.4 per cent. There is an under levy of $1,641 which will increase the actual levy used to calculate the tax rate for a total amount required to be collected of $657,916.
While the requisition has increased so has the town's assessment base. Because of this there is a decrease for the average residential property of $6 and
the average non-residential property will see a decrease of $2 for Mountain View Seniors' Housing requisition.
