BARRHEAD-County of Barrhead residents may notice a small increase in their property tax bills, but if they do it will not be due to a mill rate increase.
Councillors during their May 19 meeting.
The mill rate is the amount of tax payable per dollar of the assessed value of a property calculated per $100,000 of assessed value.
The mill rate for residential and non-residential properties was set at 6.0823 and 17.3375 per cent, respectively.
As for linear assessment (both pipe and power as well as machinery and equipment) and farmland was set at 17.3375 and 16.7949 per cent.
Later in the meeting, which was conducted remotely via the Internet, councillors unanimously approved the accompanying 2020 Property Tax Bylaw to officially set the property tax mill rate.
Finance and administration director Tamara Molzahn said although the municipality hasn't increased the mill rate residents may see their tax bills increase due to an increase in school requisition rates.
She added that overall residential and farmland assessments experienced a slight increase which also might contribute to resident's increased tax bill.
The Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF) and Opted Out School Board (OOSB) of Evergreen CRSD has been set at 2.4547 for residential and farmland properties. For non-residential properties, the rate is 4.2165 per cent.
It should be noted that municipalities are required to collect the school and the seniors' housing requisition for the province.
The municipality also collects the Barrhead and District Social Housing Association (BDSHA) requisition for seniors' housing also saw a slight increase going from 0.1127 per cent to 0.1167 per cent.
Coun. Darrell Troock asked during a discussion about the municipality's three-year and five-year financial plan whether any councillors had ever received any kickback from the county collecting the seniors' housing requisition. He is the municipality's representative on the BDHSHA board.
The BDSHA is a not-for-profit organization that operates senior's lodges and self-contained housing in Barrhead.
Most of the time he said the BDSHA puts the money they receive from the requisition in its capital reserves.
"Due to [COVID-19] we needed to use some of that money to offset some of the associated costs as part of the capital costs of the new building," Troock said.
Hillcrest Lodge is undergoing a major renovation/expansion project. Construction is expected to be complete this fall.
"I have never heard any concerns," replied reeve Doug Drozd. "We all look at it as a worthy cause because we hope we are fortunate to end up there one day."
However, he said he couldn't say the same thing about the school requisition.
"Sometimes, they wonder why, that even though they are far removed from having children that they still have to contribute," Drozd said, noting even then they realize it is a necessity.
Troock then added not all people realize that the province requires municipalities to collect the school requisition. In a budget priorities survey presented earlier in the meeting, it was noted that more than 40 per cent thought municipalities collected the tax on its own accord.
He then added he would like to see the Rural Municipalities Association (RMA) put forward a resolution asking the province to require school divisions to collect the tax.
"We don't have a chance of looking like the nice guy," he said. "We have a zero per cent increase in our taxes yet [the province] can jack it up and we have to collect more from our residents ... No one ever calls the school board chair."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
