In a city that depends so heavily on residential taxes to survive, St. Albert will likely once again have one of the lowest tax increases in the province next year.
Council is considering a 3.2-per-cent increase in residential property taxes and a 3.5-per-cent increase on non-residential properties in its draft budget.
Those figures take into account what they call a municipal inflation rate of 2.73 per cent, which is different than the overall inflation rate of 2.6 per cent, because the city doesn’t purchase things such as groceries and diapers.
Those increases are expected to raise more than $90 million to pay the lion’s share of all of the services residents have come to love and expect, such as superior snow plowing and roads. And, remember, these numbers are not final and councils typically find ways to reduce proposed increases and keep most voters relatively happy – before slightly lower taxes are approved in the following spring.
Over the past five years, St. Albert has managed to maintain the lowest taxes increases of any city in the province with an average rate of 2.56 per cent. Compared to the highest average rates of 7.66 per cent in Calgary and 6.18 per cent in Edmonton, you have to wonder how they do it. Heck, even Strathcona County has bigger increases, with an average five-year hike of 2.77 per cent. That increase came despite Strathcona boasting four of Western Canada’s five oil refineries within its borders that limited the residential share of municipal taxes to 37 per cent last year. By comparison, St. Albert homeowners paid 82 per cent of all municipal taxes.
You have to wonder, how does St. Albert keep its taxes so low? A special proposed levy to fund utility capital projects may be part of the answer, but not the whole solution. The real answer is likely more complex, but part of the story may be that while our increases appear lower, the amount of property taxes paid by individuals may be that much higher – a point many politicians try to obscure with numbers.
The money has to come from somewhere.
