Okotoks residents will have to dig a little bit deeper into their pockets than expected, after town council approved a 4.8 per cent property tax increase for 2015.
Town council approved its 2015 property tax bylaw at its April 13 meeting, which will see the tax bill on the typical home rise by $149 to $3,236. The typical home is identified as a 1,500 to 1,800 square foot three bedroom, two-storey home.
This increase is higher than what councillors had originally hoped when they approved a 3.25 per cent increase on the municipal share of property taxes in December, which would have seen residents paying an extra $64 dollars per year. However, after updated property assessments showed the typical value of homes in Okotoks increased $20,000, that $64 increase ballooned to $162. After factoring changes to the provincial education, library and Foothills Foundation portions of the tax bill, the final increase works out to $149 for the typical home.
“The message that we're trying to get across to people is we didn't increase your tax rate, it's simply that your home is now worth more, therefore you are paying more taxes,” said Okotoks finance director Rolland Russell. “We recognize there's some tough times going on so we work very hard to maintain the tax rate so that people are only impacted based on the change in the value of their home. So if your home value went up then your taxes go up.”
Russell noted that the Town does not control the housing value assessments.
“Okotoks is a very attractive place to live and with the limited supply of additional lots that are coming on stream, because of the other pressures we’re all aware of, there’s a fairly strong demand in the town of Okotoks for real estate,” he said. “So, we’ve seen an uptick in the assessed value of residential property over the last couple years.”
Thanks to the higher assessment values, the tax increase will bring in an extra $550,000 that was not budgeted when council approved its 2015 budget in December.
Council approved the tax increase in a 4-2 split last week, and voted to place the additional funds into reserve funds.
Coun. Tanya Thorn said she felt it was important Okotoks make additional contributions to its savings, as she noted some significant cost pressures ahead including potentially funding a larger portion of the water pipeline, and purchasing school sites in the future.
“With the unwillingness of the provincial government (to fund the pipeline), we’ve potentially got some finances coming towards us. Also looking at school boards asking us to purchase school sites which is atypical, so we have additional needs that may need to be financed by taxpayers,” Thorn said. “The money from this increase is all going to savings, it’s not going to spending. I think we’re being prudent by putting this money away.”
Both Coun. Matt Rockley and Mayor Bill Robertson voted against the final increase.
Rockley said he felt council should not be taking more than the $63 that was approved in December. He said he would have liked to reduce the tax rate to make up for the increase in assessment values.
“I think that we did a really good job with the 2015 budget (in December) in keeping the tax increase close to the municipal price index rate of inflation, and being able to have a solid financial situation for 2015 where we’re able to meet our operating needs and also the capital needs,” Rockley said. “So, I think that because we’ve been through the budget process we knew that we could make it work with that increase, I think the right thing to do would have been to adjust the mill rate.”
Rockley said he feels it’s premature to take money from taxpayers when the issues aren’t even on the table yet.
“I think that at the current time the town does have money in reserves from previous years, I would prefer to know what the scope of expense is and utilizing reserves as necessary and then building them up as necessary,” Rockley said. “It’s not like we’re buying a (school) site every year, so it’s something that could be built back over time. I don’t think we need the money in reserve for 2015, I think by 2016 we’ll have a better idea of how much money we need to spend and then we should put a plan in place for rebuilding that over time.”
