Town of Westlock home owners face a small mill rate increase for 2017, while business owners will see a dramatic reduction in their tax rate.
Town councillors passed the municipality’s 2017 tax rate bylaw at their May 23 meeting which sees the residential mill rate increased by 0.066, a 0.76 per cent jump, while the non-residential mill rate dropped by 3.4642, a reduction of 17.9 per cent. The multi-residential mill rate also went down — from 10.3472 to 8.7622, to mirror the residential mill rate.
Mayor Ralph Leriger highlighted the commercial tax rate drop, saying it was needed.
“One of the first things that potential business looks at is what is the mill rate and what direction is it going. I’ve already had discussions with potential investors and those are the questions that they ask me,” he said.
“This puts us on good solid footing going forward.”
The grand total of taxes collected for all categories is $6.8 million, while an additional $1.9 million will be collected for the province for school taxes ($1.59 million) and the Westlock Foundation ($301,462).
Whether or not residents face an increase to their property tax bills depends on their property assessment. The town’s total assessment increased from approximately $565 million in 2016 to $616 million this year.
“We’ve reassessed all of the properties; that gave us the ability this year to lower our commercial mill rate from 19.3 to 15.9,” noted Leriger. “What that does now is puts us right in the same range as those communities that we’ve been competing for economic development with.”
A home valued at $250,000 can expect to see its taxes increase by $32. Commercial improved properties that saw a two per cent increase in value with no other major changes will see a drop in taxes of $1,835.
“At the end of the day, with those adjustments we end up with the same amount of money as we had last year,” he said. “Plus the 1.68 per cent increase (in revenue) we were looking for.”
In addition, a new tax penalty bylaw also passed giving residents until Aug. 1 to pay their taxes.
“We delayed sending out tax notices by a month this year,” said chief administrative officer Dean Krause. “Hence, we extended the due date by a month. We like to give people 60 days to pay their taxes after they get their notice.”
While the non-residential tax rate was reduced, the vacant non-residential rate of 26.98 mills remains substantially higher than the 15.9264 mills for non-residential land in use.
The Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF) education requisition is $826,000 and $381,000 for non-residential. The residential mill rate dropped from 2.5164 in 2016 to 2.5117 in 2017 and from 3.4158 to 2.8709 for non-residential.
The Evergreen Catholic Separate Regional Division education requisition is just over $256,000 for residential and $131,000 for non-residential. The change was the same for the ASFF, dropping to 2.5117 for residential and 2.8709 for non-residential.
Council passed its 2017 operating budget Feb. 27, expecting tax revenue of $6.7 million alongside a seniors housing requisition of $301,000 and education requisition of $1,545,000.
The seniors housing requisition increased even though the mill rate dropped from 0.5290 in 2016 to 0.4895 in 2017.
