Most Athabasca County ratepayers will face an increase in property taxes this year.
County council passed the 2012 taxation bylaw at their meeting last Thursday.
In total, Athabasca County needs to collect just short of $15.9 million in taxation revenue this year. The taxation bylaw set the rates by which this revenue will be collected from various types of properties.
The overall mill rate for residential property increased from 6.21 in 2011 to 6.37 in 2012, a difference of approximately 2.6 per cent. The biggest factors contributing to the increase were a six-per-cent increase in the education levy assigned by the province, as well as an increase of approximately one per cent in general municipal taxes.
A drop in the Greater North Foundation (GNF) levy of over 10 per cent offset those increases. However, it should be noted that the GNF levy went up by 72.7 per cent in 2011.
The net result of the new tax rate bylaw is that a county residential property with an average value of $300,000 would see its tax bill increase from $1,863 in 2011 to $1,911 in 2012, assuming the assessed property value remained the same.
Similar increases and reduction to taxation rates also applied to farmland, non-residential, linear and industrial (machinery and equipment) assessments within the county.
The farmland taxation rate for 2012 is 13.44, while both the non-residential and linear rates are set at 16.61. The industrial rate now 12.73, as it is exempt from the education levy.
