BOYLE – Village of Boyle residents are going to notice the property mill rate went up on their 2023 tax forms, although that may not correspond to an increase in taxes, depending on their property assessments.
Village of Boyle councillors voted 5-0 to pass the 2023 tax rate bylaw, formally called Bylaw 001-23, during their May 17 council meeting,
“When we first started discussing the 2023 budget, we decided to have administration do some calculations to see what the mill rate would need to be for us to have an equal amount of money from 2022,” said mayor Colin Derko in a May 19 e-mail. “When we used a two per cent increase, we saw that we were close to that number, and in fact it was a little less.”
Under the new bylaw, the village’s mill rate increases by two per cent, from 9.905 to 10.10. Farmland rates remain at 17.89, and non-residential, as well as machinery and equipment rates stayed at 17.81. During budget discussions in late April, councillors said that given the changes in assessment value for the non-residential properties, a further hike would be too much of a change. For every $100,000 that a residential property is valued at, the mill rate hike will add $19.81 to the tax bill.
Despite tax hike, revenue from residential taxes has decreased 22.61 per cent, falling from $797,110 to a projected $616,868 in 2023.
Tax revenue from commercial properties has also fallen 17.69 per cent, down to the projected $239,125 instead of the $290,531 from 2022, while revenue from industrial properties has also decreased 20.05 per cent, down from $72,489 to $57,952.
As a result, Derko said they had to be diligent constructing the budget, giving credit to administration for their work.
“Council and administration worked very hard to make sure that our essential services and quality of life in the village were held high on our list of needs, and we were able to budget some much-needed projects like street repairs and infrastructure upgrades.”
The increase means that the village was able to maintain the same budget it had over the last five years as Derko noted that from 2018 to 2023, “we’ve been able to keep the municipal portion of our taxes relatively the same.”
“Council has been able to budget responsibly so that our taxes haven’t changed, while still investing back into our community with both minor and major projects.”
Besides the municipal tax portion, the village will also collect requisitions for the Greater North Foundation (GNF), the Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF), and Designated Industrial properties. ASFF will collect $252,334, with $157,974.15 coming from residential/farmland with a 2.58 mill rate, and $94,359 coming from non-residential properties, at a 3.80 mill rate. GNF will collect $11,636 from eligible properties, at a 0.13 mill rate, and finally, the village will also collect $655.42 for Designated Industrial properties, at a 0.07 mill rate.
These amounts do show up as revenue for the village as they merely collect the money before turning around and signing a cheque to the province and GNF.
