Airdrie residents can expect to see their property taxes go up this year, following City council’s approval of a tax increase of 8.47 per cent at a regular meeting May 6.
Notices will be mailed to all property owners May 28, which administration said will include a brochure explaining the calculation for both municipal and education taxes and detailing how residents’ tax dollars are used. The information will also be posted on the City’s website, airdrie.ca.
According to Manager of Treasury, Shannon Schindeler, the average Airdrie home contributes $615 toward protective services and $33 toward stabilizing future tax rates.
“In prior years, these amounts would have been combined with all other municipal services – this breakdown provides much more transparency for the taxpayers,” she said. “Both the brochure and City website help to further engage, inform and educate citizens with regards to how tax revenue is generated, levied and used.”
The Municipal Government Act (MGA) requires the City to pass a tax rate bylaw each year, to raise funds for municipal operations. According to Schindeler, the taxes paid by property owners in Airdrie are determined based on the tax rate set by the bylaw, multiplied by the assessed value of each property – valued to reflect as close as possible to the home’s market value as of July 1 of the previous year.
The 2019 budget, approved by council in December 2018, estimated the average Airdrie homeowner would pay an additional $12.08 per month as a result of the tax increase. However, Schindeler said, now that the City has finalized the assessment data, that number has decreased slightly.
“The average homeowner with an assessed value of $405,000, with no changes in value since last year, is expected to see an increase of $143.57 per year on their municipal taxes, or $11.96 per month,” she said. “If the property value has increased or decreased since 2018, there will be a corresponding effect on taxes.”
Residents will also pay increased education taxes in 2019, which is collected by municipalities for the province and used to support both public and separate school boards on an equal-per-student basis. Since the province will not release budget information until September, due to the provincial election, administration used a five-year average to calculate the proposed tax increase.
“The estimated City of Airdrie school requisition will increase by 6.92 per cent this year, to a total of [$31.3 million],” Schindeler said.
Due to another large growth year in Airdrie, Schindeler said, this amount will be spread among more parties, lowering the impact on each resident. The same average homeowner can expect to see an increase of $44.74 per year on their school taxes, or $2.81 per month, for an increase of just 3.4 per cent.
She added residents will also see a reduction in utility costs in 2019, as discussed during council’s budget deliberations last December, which will help to offset the increase to their municipal and education taxes. According to Schindeler, this decrease results in a savings of $90 for the average resident.
“What I want to highlight here is that even though council approved an 8.47 per cent municipal tax increase for 2019, due to our growth, the average resident will only experience a 6.5 per cent total tax increase, year over year,” she said.
While council had requested staff provide information regarding using the 2018 surplus of $580,850 to reduce the increase, Schindeler pointed out this would be a short-term solution and could cause a higher tax rate in the following year.
“Any reduction in the 2019 tax rate shifts the burden to 2020,” she said, “and council also has the option to reduce services to balance future budgets.”
The 2019 Tax Rate Bylaw was approved by a vote of 6-1, with opposition from Mayor Peter Brown.
