No one likes a tax increase, even a modest one like the Town of Westlock councillors passed at their April 24 meeting.
We could almost predict the social-media rabble when we posted our April 23 story on councillors’ April 15 committee of the whole mill rate discussion. That night they did everything but approve the increase, which in the case of residential properties will jump from 8.9063 to 9.8651, while commercial/industrial will increase from 16.1571 to 16.9437.
As mayor Ralph Leriger offered that night, he’ll pay an extra $32 in property taxes due to an eight per cent drop in assessment of his home.
And to be honest, if ratepayers should be mad about anything, it’s that drop.
Most people can deal with an extra $32 spread out over a year. Try wrapping your mind around that fact your home is worth eight per cent less — on a $300,000 pad that’s a cool $24,000.
So that’s a big ouch if you just bought a home and are carrying a mortgage, or had plans to dip into your home’s equity for a line of credit. Of course the town has no direct control over assessment values, so save your vitriol for something they can control, like spending.
And from our vantage point it appears they’re doing a pretty good job on holding the line.
Mayor Ralph is pretty persuasive guy when it comes to talking about the town’s finances. Over the past few editions we’ve run stories on the municipality’s audited financial statements, in addition to the mill rate discussion.
“When we can point to our entire financial picture and tell the whole story of our debt down, reserves up, projects done … all that stuff and closing the tax gap with our contemporaries I think it tells a very compelling story,” said Leriger in our April 23 story.
Another set of interesting numbers comes from the town’s 2019-2021 operating budget. Over those years they’re predicting one and 1.34 per cent jumps in revenue and expenditures, which is less than the current inflation rate.
So at the end of the day the town has more money in the bank, gotten big projects done and has a realistic three-year operating budget with no cuts to services. Aside from the town winning the Lotto Max, this as good a result as could be expected.
