Airdrie City council held a special meeting May 25 to unanimously approve the 2015 Tax Rate Bylaw, after it failed to receive approval for third reading at the regular meeting on May 19.
The reason for holding the special meeting was simple economics, according to Mayor Peter Brown.
“We would have had to wait another two weeks, and it would have impacted our budget and there was no reason to do that,” Brown said. “It would have been two weeks of accounting we would have had to backtrack on so we thought we’d better expedite the process.”
The special meeting was held immediately prior to council’s “visioning session” at which members discussed their vision for Airdrie looking ahead.
Airdrie City council unanimously approved the 2015 to 2017 Operating Budget of $100 million at its meeting on Dec. 1, 2014, including a 4.77 per cent tax increase.
Director of Corporate Services Lucy Wiwcharuk said the tax rate includes a mandatory education tax paid to the Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF).
The average homeowner will see an increase in municipal taxes, including the education tax, of $9.78 per month or $117.37 per year now that the 2015 Tax Rate Bylaw has been approved by council.
Assessment notices were sent to Airdrie homeowners in January and the appeals process was closed in March. According to Wiwcharuk, finance staff were then able to determine the actual revenue the City would generate through taxes, based on the number of additional residences in the city and their assessed values.
“The amount of tax revenue generated each year does remain constant and added to that is the additional revenue from growth as well as any tax increase approved as part of the budget process,” she said May 19.
According to Wiwcharuk, the majority of homeowners will actually pay less than the 4.77 per cent increase approved by council because of the city’s growth and costs being spread amongst more parcels.
Property taxes are used to fund the municipality based on the items approved in the 2015 Operating Budget, including the hiring of eight additional RCMP officers as well as a variety of roadway improvements.
“When the 2015 budget was prepared, we estimated our growth at $2.5 million,” Wiwcharuk said. “Our actual growth came really close this year at $2.58 million.”
The extra revenue amounts to $79,997, according to Wiwcharuk. Council approved moving this amount to the general operating reserve at its May 19 meeting.
Airdrie’s tax rate measures up favourably against other Alberta municipalities, according to Wiwcharuk. Cochrane residents will see an increase of just under seven per cent in 2015, while Grande Prairie’s increase is the highest at more than nine per cent.
Alderman Allan Hunter, who voted against permission for third reading of the bylaw at the May 19 council meeting, was unable to attend the special May 25 meeting.
