By Sheldon Spackman

RED DEER

City council passes tax bylaw with 0.5% rate increase

May 13, 2020 | 7:09 PM

Many Red Deer property owners can expect to see a smaller tax bill in the mail this year.

On Wednesday, city council gave third and final reading to the 2020 Tax Rate Bylaw which implements a 0.5 per cent increase in taxes this year.

However, due to a reduction in education levy requirements by the province and the recent reduction of the municipal operating budget to keep it at 2019 levels, the average property owner will see a reduction in their overall tax bill of 1.36 per cent.

City officials say the reduction in education levy collections ($541,300) is due to the provincial government freezing the component in 2020, and overestimating the 2019 amount communities collected as a result of the delay in the Provincial budget.

Residential and non-residential property owners with the average change in assessed value are anticipated to see the 1.36 per cent decrease to their overall tax bill, while multi-family properties will see an increase of 1.29 per cent in order to keep all residential type property tax rates the same.

mayor hopes to meet housing minister this month

Alberta demands Ottawa back off on housing funding stripped from Red Deer

15h ago

Last seen Jan. 15

Missing: Courtney Cattleman, 17, of Maskwacis

20h ago

eyes up

Air Spray training around Red Deer Regional Airport

20h ago

“In the combined property tax increase expected across the board, for those with an average assessment, most property tax payers will see a 1.36 percent reduction,” says Mayor Tara Veer. “We’ve hit the best balance that we possibly can.”

Councillor Michael Dawe echoed those sentiments by adding, “I am pleased to see that the average residential tax bill will actually be going down.”

The bylaw also received support from councillors Frank Wong, Buck Buchanan, Dianne Wyntjes, and Ken Johnston, who alluded to council recently maintaining the previously approved capital budget for this year.

“We continue to make a stake in our future that this capital half percent continues to provide us,” says Johnston. “We’ll get the benefit of the capital contribution that we continue to make. We’re holding the line on operational investment and costs, and continue to invest in the eventual recovery of our economy.”

The bylaw didn’t receive unanimous support though, as two councillors voted against.

“When you consider the local economy, Red Deer now has the highest unemployment rate in the entire province. In my mind, if there ever were a time to hold the line on taxes, this is the time,” said Councillor Vesna Higham.

“I think we had the opportunity to go further, and this doesn’t go far enough,” lamented Councillor Tanya Handley.

Councillor Lawrence Lee, however, feels they made the best decision they could with the information available.

“We still don’t know the full impact of what this pandemic will have for all Red Deerians in the future,” suggested Lee. “We did make adjustments to what we decided previously. We still held the principle that we want to maintain a future Red Deer that generations behind us deserve.”

City officials point out that property taxes fund the City’s operating budget for the provision of essential services such as police, fire, ambulance and infrastructure maintenance. Property taxes also fund the requisitions legislated to be collected on behalf of the Province and Bridges Community Foundation.

The Foundation requisitions the City to collect funds for affordable senior’s housing, with this year’s requisition increasing to $785,000 from $575,000 in 2019.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on April 14 council directed that the date to pay 2020 Property Tax Notices without penalty be extended to Sept. 30, with no supplementary property tax to be levied in 2020. Penalties on unpaid taxes will not be imposed until Oct. 1 for those taxpayers requiring additional time to pay.

The City has also extended the TIP program for sign up to Jun. 15 without requiring the lump sum payment for Jan through May so that taxes may be spread in equal monthly payments for the remainder of the year. Property tax notices will be mailed June 1.

City officials say administration continues to review programs and processes to identify further ways to assist taxpayers during the pandemic. A suite of tax relief and deferral measures being provided in Red Deer is said to exceed what has been done in other municipalities.

Additionally, officials point to a host of federal and provincial relief programs that provide income replacement, payment deferrals, loans and rebates for both individuals and businesses.

City officials say Red Deer has a slightly lower than average level of property taxation compared to other municipalities in Alberta.

However, residential properties pay a comparatively larger share than non-residential, noting this translates into slightly below average residential property taxes and highly attractive non-residential property taxes when compared with other cities.