Drumheller residents will see a small jump in their tax bill for 2018 after a year without any increase.
Drumheller Town Council approved the mill rate bylaw on Monday, April 16. The municipal requisition for its operating budget passed by council is $8,718766, a three per cent increase over 2017, when there was a zero per cent increase.
The 2018 education property tax requisition for the Town of Drumheller is sitting at $2,738,682 which equates to an increase of 1.44 per cent over 2017. The 2018 Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation (DDSF) requisition of $540,272.50 represents an increase of 3.8 per cent compared to 2017.
An analysis of the assessment indicates that on average resident’s assessment values decreased by 0.87 per cent and commercial assessment values decreased by 1.5 per cent.
Based on these numbers, on average, a residential assessment of $200,000 in 2017 will see an increase of $76.73. Of this, $54.79 will go to the municipal taxes, $17.05 will go towards the education property tax requisition and $4.88 will go towards the DDSF requisition.
For someone who owns a home assessed at $300,000 will see an increase of $115.09. Of this, $82.19 will go to the municipal requisition, $25.58 to education, and $7.32 to the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation.
Councillor Jay Garbutt noted, “We are talking about an increase of less than $10 per month in total taxation to an average property worth $300,000, and only 70 per cent of that is responsible to the municipality.”
“I think that is a signal to everyone of what we can accomplish together given the scope and depth of services that are provided to us as citizens of the Town of Drumheller.”
A commercial assessment valued at $500,000 will see an increase of $268.16. $257.61 will go to the municipality, $1.65 towards education, and $12.21 towards the DDSF.
Residents will be receiving their notice of assessment and bills in the mail within the first week of May. All taxes are due at the end of August.
The adopted bylaw can be found on the town’s website www.dinosaurvalley.com.
In order to challenge your taxes, you must challenge the assessed value of your home. There is an application that can be filled out at the Town office.
