At their regularly scheduled meeting April 7, council met using the online platform Zoom, and unanimously passed the budget with the moderate increase to taxes.
The increase sees the residential rate rising from 8.1862 to 8.51368 and the non-residential from 16.6816 to 17.01521.
A mill rate, or millage rate, is the amount per $1,000 of assessed value the owner of the property pays in taxes to a municipality.
The current assessed value of residential in Athabasca is $256,789,430 which would provide the town with $2,186,281 in taxes or 42 per cent of its tax revenue.
Non-residential and machinery and equipment provide for 32.6 per cent of tax revenue.
The requisition from the Alberta Government was $30,000 less than projected due to the government using the 2019 requisition numbers, but that does not have an impact on operations as that is an in-and-out expense.
At the end of the day however, the Town will not have a lot of wiggle room if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the economy but the town's chief financial officer Jeff Dalley is not overly concerned at the moment.
“No concerns at this time,” he said. “I mean, it's an evolving situation so I guess we're just kind of taking it day by day and see what happens like one day, one day could be different than next.”
In light of the pandemic the council also chose to waive any penalties and transfer fees on utilities for the April and June billing cycles which could result in an estimated $10,000 loss in revenue.
“We wouldn't give anybody their penalties after the due date,” explained interim CAO Rachel Ramey. “And then we wouldn't transfer any utilities to taxes with the fee attached, we would just leave it on their utility account until we get to August billing and deal it then.”
Mayor Colleen Powell preferred waiving the penalties over deferring so people can pay down their bills without being hit with a larger amount later on.
“I like the idea of waiving the penalty better,” she commented. “It accomplishes exactly the same thing but rather than deferring an entire amount somebody might say, ‘Well, I can't pay the full amount this month, but I can put 100 bucks to it.’”
Included in the budget was a one per cent cost of living allowance (COLA) increase for staff.
The projected surplus though is just over $22,000.
“I think we all know that by year end, we're going to have some adjustment,” Ramey added.
The council also agreed to waive rent and utility fees for the Athabasca FLIPS Gymnastics Club which has to closed due to the pandemic. The club will have no income from registration fees or fundraising by casinos.
In a letter to council the club said, “We fully recognize this is a big ask given the newness of the relationship between the Town and FLIPS.”
Coun. Tannia Cherniwchan agreed with allowing FLIPS the reprieve noting the Multiplex has forgiven rent to the Whispering Hills Daycare.
“The Multiplex has forgiven rent from daycare ... so I would think that this should follow through to our dealings with FLIPS as well,” she noted.
Council also approved the audited statement presented by Scott Mockford, a partner with Doyle & Company Chartered Accountants pending receiving the audited statement from the Athabasca Regional Multiplex.
