Residents of Drumheller can expect a two per cent increase on their residential taxes from the town in 2015.
At Monday night’s council meeting the tax mill rate was passed for 2015 taxes.
The Town of Drumheller has approved the 2015 budget requiring property tax revenue of $8,169,065. The required tax to pay the requisition from the Province for the Alberta School Foundation Fund is $2,281,869.70 and the requisition for Christ Redeemer CSRD No. 3 is $439,172.01. The required tax to pay the requisition from the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation is $450,500.
Mayor Terry Yemen said residents have to remember that the increase is on their property’s assessed value, not based on last year’s taxes.
“People have to be aware that when they get their assessment it is 2% on the assessment. The price of your house hopefully went up from last year.”
Yemen continued by saying that residents might look at the bottom line of the tax assessment and see more than 2%.
“It is not 2% because the town is charged with collecting the school board requisitioning and the seniors requisitioning, which goes up, but that is cash in cash out, it is not part of the tax increase. The number at the bottom of your tax assessment is more than 2%, but there are other things that play into the equation that the town has no control over.”
“A 2% increase, when you look at the other towns and cities and what their increase was, when you are talking 5% or 7% in a lot of other communities that is more the norm,” Yemen explained. “The Town of Drumheller is doing good with keeping that 2% and last year we were similar so we have kept our tax increase below the inflationary increase which is exceptional. There are not a lot of communities that say they can do that.”
