This town council is getting out of control. They said they are not raising taxes this year, which is simply not true.
I was at the council's financial open house back in December. The mayor (Brian Spiller) said that if the property tax doesn't go up they will still have to raise the mill rate because of the recession, house prices have come down, and if the mill rate stayed the same the amount we pay in property taxes would go down as well, which to them is not acceptable.
Then back in April or May of 2015 they changed the stabilization rate of $20 and in its place installed a water flat rate of $10 and a sewer stab/flat rate of $15.
So, we are now paying an extra $25 per month versus the original $20 per month until year 2020. And the mayor even said he wants to keep the stabilization rate past the year 2020, even though they may have to change the name.
They are obviously addicted to the extra $747,600 a year that it brings in at the old rate, which has now grown to over $934,500 per year at the new rate. This is based on the 2010 status showing 3,115 households in Innisfail, and probably does not include apartments and condos.
This clearly shows that this is just another money grab, along with selling off of every square foot of land they can muster, and shoving these changes down our throats.
The town also said that “one of the big reasons that people are moving here is because of the small town feel”, but yet they are doing everything in their power to try to make this a city.
Since its swearing in, this council has clearly shown they want to grow at any cost. That includes changing designated green areas to commercial development, even though there are no developers interested in that area.
They are also increasing housing developments even though the population has only grown by 35 people last year, and there are dozens of empty houses in Hazelwood and Napoleon Meadows, not to mention all the houses for sale in other parts of town.
I think that the people of Innisfail need to take the time out of their busy lives, read the Innisfail Province, and sit up and take notice of what this council is actually doing.
This town plans all these development changes and hearings around holidays and school functions so people don't have time to go to these meetings and voice their concerns.
Although in hindsight that doesn't help as the council just does what they want anyways.
Sheldon Stotz
Innisfail
