Town approves tax increase

Turner Valley residents won’t have to dig much deeper into their pockets to pay their property taxes this year.

During a special council meeting on Monday, Town council approved a residential tax increase of 0.75 per cent over last year. This follows last year’s increase of 1.9 per cent.

The average taxpayer with a home assessed at $325,000 who paid $3,422.19 in taxes last year will likely see an increase of $26.30. This is based on an assessment increase to $332,000 and an $3,448.49 tax bill on the average home.

“Twenty six bucks a year per household, I’m pleased,” said Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck. “When you start hitting people with tax increases, service increases and you change the mill rate that’s a lot to swallow.”

Taxes collected on behalf of the Foothills School Division, Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools and Foothills Foundation decreased by 0.57 per cent this year. These taxes represent 23 per cent of the total municipal requisition.

Council also agreed to abolished the business tax bylaw, which means Turner Valley merchants will not be taxed.

The 2015 tax rate follows the approval of the Town’s capital budget of $22.6 million on April 13.

Of that amount, $21.4 million is funded by grant dollars, $376,000 is debenture proceeds, $100,000 is developer offsite levies, $267,000 is capital reserves and $442,000 is from the sale of assets.

Projects funded from reserves and sale of assets include $350,000 to develop a walking path along Decalta Road, $90,000 to create a day use area at Hell’s Half Acre Campground, $65,000 to update the town’s 10-year infrastructure plan, $45,000 to update water metre reading equipment, $17,000 to repair the waste transfer station in partnership with Black Diamond and the MD of Foothills, $35,000 to purchase an electronic sign at Millennium Park and $35,000 for playground improvements on Robert Street.

Projects approved for grant funding include $900,000 to upgrade the north lift station, $390,000 to remediate a portion of Decalta Drive, $162,750 to replace water metres, $81,000 to replace sewer systems on Windsor Avenue and $45,928 for pedestrian safety improvements.

Tuck said the pedestrian task force committee has been brainstorming ways to make Turner Valley safer, including reducing the speed limit on side streets from 50 km/hr to 40, which will be implemented this year.

With the Town of Turner Valley moving towards full cost recovery on its water and sewer bills, Tuck said that will allow the Town to place $85,000 into reserves this year.

“Part of our long term planning is to ensure we always have money and always putting it away,” she said. “We are just trying to ensure if money is coming out every year we’ve got to make sure we’re putting money back in there.”

With the Town of Turner Valley wrapping up its flood mitigation projects this year, it can now focus on other areas of improvement in the town, said Tuck.

“Now we are focusing on long term plans,” she said. “Not being able to move ahead with the projects was the biggest denominator in that whole things.”

Barry Williamson, Turner Valley’s chief administrative officer, said much of the Town’s focus was on flood mitigation since the 2013 flood hit southern Alberta.

“A good chunk (of the budget) is still to do with flood recovery projects,” he said. “We’ve got to get all those flood recovery projects done, stay on top of things that are general services to the community and try to get these things done at the same time.”

Williamson said residents have been waiting on some projects for more than a year, such as remediation work on Decalta Road.

“A lot of people are waiting for Decalta Road to be complete,” he said. “As we build Decalta Road we want to put a pathway all the way down from 16th Avenue to Main Street.”

While attempting to complete flood-related projects and begin those put on the backburner the last two years, Williamson said the Town dedicated a lot of time to establishing the shared water services with Black Diamond, the MD of Foothills and eventually Longview and the environmental appeal process that is taking place at the Turner Valley Golf Club this week.