Town of Westlock residents will see a 3.4 per cent increase in their property taxes this year, mostly due to the fact the municipality will soon pay for its policing services.
This comes as town council unanimously passed its 2018 operating budget at its Feb. 26 meeting with total revenues and expenses coming out to $16,872,670.35 for services ranging from recreation and transportation to FCSS, fire department and employee wages.
The town will collect $3.56 million in residential taxes, slightly more than in 2017, and $2.8 million in non-residential taxes, also up slightly from 2017.
“We anticipate an average tax increase of 3.4 per cent. Now, that’s a mill rate increase. That, of course, is completely contingent on where your assessment comes in because a mill rate is, after all, just a multiplier. If your assessment came in the same as last year, then it would look like a 3.4 per cent increase,” explained mayor Ralph Leriger.
The town will start paying for its own policing services April 1 after hitting the 5,000 population mark in the 2015 municipal census.
“It’s a big hit when you hit that 5,000 (population threshold), for sure, absolutely. It’s a big hit,” said Leriger.
Other than that, the budget is balanced and the mayor is pleased with how the process went overall, he said he expects the capital budget to be passed at council’s next meeting slated for March 12.
“I would specifically point out the process went very smoothly this year, maybe the best in three years. No one likes to see a tax increase, but 3.1 (per cent) of that is directly attributable to policing costs,” he said, noting the additional 0.3 per cent goes towards staff increases in pay and other costs such as the provincial carbon levy.
However, that 3.1 per cent only pays for a portion of policing costs. The town has budgeted $476,180 and will receive $240,000 through the Municipal Policing Assistance Grant to go along with the $200,000 collected in taxes.
“Overall, administration is very pleased with the 2018 operating budget. This budget maintains the level of service council has mandated without increasing any costs,” said interim CAO Simone Wyley.
Despite the tax increase, council was happy with how the budget turned out.
“I thought it was a very tight budget,” said Coun. John Shoemaker. “There is very little excess money in there…. I think it’s just a great budget and kudos to the department heads for coming up with it.”
“I think administration was conscious of the cost that policing would have on our community and conscious of the fact that council’s goal was to maintain a specific service level,” said Coun. Murtaza Jamaly. “Kudos to Ms. Wyley and her team, in regards to pulling this off, you understood the vision of council and this was potentially the hardest budget in a number of years.”
