A slight tax increase is in store for Athabasca County residents this year.
Athabasca County council passed their 2015 budget during last Thursday’s meeting with a projected tax rate increase of two per cent.
The budget, which has been in the works since September, includes $33.63 million in revenues and $33.62 million in expenditures – leaving a projected surplus of slightly more than $11,000.
County chief administrative officer Ryan Maier explained the mill rate, which municipalities use to calculate taxation rates, will be set at a future date, but anticipates it will work out to an overall rise of two per cent.
“I guess the way it works for us, and most municipalities like us, is we don’t receive our assessment until usually February and we have contract assessors, so we take that assessment and then we apply our mill rate to it to reach our taxation revenue. That’s how we balance it out,” said Maier.
Brian Pysyk, the county’s director of corporate services, stated the rate will likely be before council in either March or April.
The big spending in this year’s budget includes $2.4 million for road construction, Caslan’s new tanker fire truck unit for $230,000, a $282,000 grant to improve internet connectivity, spending $165,000 on a county fire training facility and a 46-per-cent increase in the purchase of water from the Aspen Regional Water Services Commission.
That being said, however, there are no special projects going through in this year’s budget.
“It is a very extensive document, but it is really business as usual,” stated Pysyk.
“There aren’t any special projects. We don’t have any major paving projects. Council, the way the economy is, is not working at that. It’s business as usual. We’re going to build some roads and provide services. It’s nothing special.”
Maier added, “We’re not dropping service levels in any areas, but we’re not tackling any major projects. The major project will be the pool/school – that will be the main thing this year. Of course, we won’t have a lot of those expenses in 2015.”
Should there is an economic turnaround in 2015, it’s not likely that the county will be tackling anymore capital projects. Instead, the money will be saved for other projects in years to come.
“I don’t see anything major happening. We’ll just put money aside and plan for the future two, three years down the line,” said Pysyk.
If the opposite should happen, it also won’t affect any projects during the year and won’t affect the operating budget at all – instead there may be issues in 2016.
“Our grant dollars really don’t impact our operating, because most of the grant dollars from the province are for capital,” said Maier.
“So, where that comes in, if they really have some deep cuts this year in their budget, what that’ll impact is our capital budget next year.”
Further details and other information on the approved budget is available by visiting their website and following the links at www.athabascacounty.com.
