Olds town council froze municipal tax rates at the April 22 council meeting. But depending on an individual homeowner's property assessment, the amount they pay could actually increase or decrease over 2012.
Initially, town staff wanted to match inflation when considering tax rates, but Garth Lucas, interim director of corporate services, said because inflation was so low, the thinking was to try and freeze residential tax rates at 2012 levels. Lucas said staff estimated what assessment would be in December 2012, but the actual assessment numbers were lower than estimated, giving the town about $109,000 less in forthcoming tax revenue than what staff had estimated. As a result, capital spending was trimmed to match revenue.
"The tax revenue went down, the capital cost went down, some of the Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant money from the province actually went up and so by changing some of the transfers from operating to capital and making use of the additional grant money, that's how we managed to balance the budget,î Lucas said.
Residential assessment in Olds stayed flat from 2011, while non-residential assessment increased by 9.4 per cent over the same time period.
The average residential dwelling in Olds was assessed at $284,099 in July 2012. Town staff has estimated the total tax bill for an average homeowner will be $2,349.56 in 2013, up $22.41 from last year. The municipal portion of that is $1,574.82 for the average homeowner. The average home last year was assessed at $284,008.
Another portion of a taxpayer's overall bill, the 2013 Educational Property Tax Requisition received for the provincial government, is $3.4 million for Olds, a 3.3 per cent increase over last year's requisition. The town collects the tax from property owners on behalf of the provincial government and remits it to the province.
Some of the tax money the town receives will be spent on infrastructure within the community. Key capital projects for this year include rebuilding and refurbishing water and sewer lines, curb and gutter and pavement projects. More than $2 million has been budgeted for street improvements, while $1.2 million has been budgeted for water projects and $698,500 for wastewater. A total of $75,000 will be spent this year on resurfacing existing trails.
Mayor Judy Dahl commended staff for the work they did in preparing the 2013 budget.
"I have to commend our (chief administrative officer) and administration, for sure, on being able to maintain the services for the community and keep a zero-per-cent tax rate (increase). It takes a lot of work and collaboration to maintain a high level of services,î she said, adding that it's rare to be able to freeze tax rates and still maintain service levels.
Another consideration council and administrators had to make when considering taxes was increases in user rates in areas such as wastewater and solid waste. With those rates rising, Dahl said council wanted to keep taxes low.
"You have to be fair to your citizens. We have many requisitions that are out of our control. We also have the water and wastewater pressures that are mandated to us,î she said.
