County residents will have to pay more taxes than planned next year now that council has bulked up its budget with cash for roads and libraries.
County council added seven items to the 2017 budget in a series of budget meetings last week.
These were all items that council identified as being very important to the community, said Sturgeon County Mayor Tom Flynn.
The $248,000 in additions bumps the county's tax hike to 1.315 per cent from 0.9, said county corporate support manager Rick Wojtkiw.
This means the owner of a typical $502,650 home will pay about $1,919 next year in municipal taxes, or about $25 more than they did last year.
Whereas information previously presented to council suggested that residents could pay $103 more in education and seniors levies next year, Wojtkiw noted that said estimate did not account for growth in linear assessment. That revenue would likely cover most of the anticipated hike to those levies, meaning that residents would pay just $11 more in levies and $36 more in taxes. Wastewater and water rates are projected to rise $82 per home.
Wojtkiw emphasized that the education and seniors levies could change, as they were not under the county's control.
The additions
Council agreed to add $39,000 in tax dollars to what the county personally contributes to area libraries, bringing its total contribution to about $51,000. (The county also passes on funds through the Northern Lights Library System.)
"In the last year or so we've had a number of libraries in the region say they really needed more operating money to function," Flynn said, particularly Morinville's. The county's community services board recommended this increase.
Flynn acknowledged that this increase was nowhere near the $200,000 the Morinville Library had requested earlier this year, but said that would be a "humongous" leap in funding.
"We have to look at it based on people who use it from Sturgeon County."
Northern Lights Library System chair and Morinville Coun. Stephen Dafoe said in an email that he was pleased to see a partner community step up to fund libraries.
"Another $40,000 roughly for the five libraries in the county is a significant increase from the past and about $8,000 each, but it is far from the amount Morinville was looking for."
Council also agreed to spend $15,000 in taxes to do a survey on the Morinville Recreation Centre.
While Morinville did a survey earlier this year to judge interest and support for a rec-centre that included county residents, county council had heard from residents that didn't have a chance to take that survey, and wanted a more comprehensive phone poll, Flynn said.
The Morinville survey of 1,172 Morinville, Sturgeon County, St. Albert, Legal and Bon Accord residents found that 45 per cent of respondents said they would support a tax hike to pay for new recreation facilities, with 64 per cent of those saying they would be willing to pay up to $100 more per year to pay for them. The survey is considered accurate to within 2.6 per cent 19 times out of 20.
Council also chose to toss $44,000 into reserves for potential weed control around county signs, spend $50,000 more to rebuild local roads, and pay $50,000 to trim trees that grow over gravel roads and obscure intersections, Flynn said.
They also moved to create a formal sponsorship fund ($40,000) to fund events such as the Edmonton Airshow instead of funding them on an ad-hoc basis, and to create a separate $10,000 fund for Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Alberta Association of Municipal Districts & Counties committee appointments, which were previously funded out of the general council training budget.
The budget goes to a vote Dec. 13.
