After several weeks away from town chambers, The Town of Athabascaís council reunited on April 5 and voted in favour of increasing the tax rate by two per cent.
Coun. Tanu Evans made the motion for the increase. All members except Mayor Roger Morrill, who was opposed, and Coun. Tim Verhaeghe, who was absent, voted in favour.
ìIíll make the motion to increase our taxes by two per cent across the board with the money generated by that to be put in a pool debenture mitigation reserve,î Evans said. ìWeíve known for some time that in order to cover the pool debenture we will need roughly a two-per-cent increase for three years ñ I see no reason to lump all of that into the town hall at once, so I suggest we do it in small increments in the next three years.î
Alternatively, Morrill stated, if anything, the town should look at giving money back to citizens.
ìIím not big fan of building reserve accounts in order to cover some future possibility,î he said. ìWe donít know for sure about certain things, so Iíd rather keep the dollars in the taxpayersí hands.î
The current residential tax rate sits at 7.6 per cent; the non-residential rate at 15.9 per cent. Tax notices will be distributed in May, with collection in June.
Budget talk continues
Council also took the opportunity to further discuss the 2016 municipal budget, highlighting a $289,343 operating surplus.
Chief assistant officer Josh Pyrcz suggested $100,000 of that surplus be put towards upcoming sewer lining initiatives, while Evans asked the remaining $198,343 be placed in a reserve fund. Motions for both requests were carried.
ìWith the 49th Street sewer line, we have drained quite a bit of reserves in our tenure as council,î Evans said. ìI would like to see us slowly starting to beef that up so we donít leave future councils without anything.î
The budget was first approved on Dec. 15, 2015, with the addition of a road coating for Wood Heights Road.
