Vauxhall town council reviews two bylaws

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

With tax season underway, Vauxhall town council had a chance to review two bylaws — Bylaw 975-21 Special Tax and Bylaw 976-21 Property Tax.  

Looking at Bylaw 975-21 Special Tax, administration presented council with a number of scenarios.

“The first four scenarios are based on a $5, 80 per cent special tax rate. Scenario five, we increased that to a $6 tax rate and that is per linear foot that every property in Vauxhall is charged. That goes against roads and streets,” explained CFO Wendy Bergen at town council’s regular meeting on May 3. “In the budget process we approved a three per cent increase and this year, our assessments went up to $537,000 with non-residential increasing the greatest with $414,550.” 

Bergen also further explained some of the scenarios.

“Scenario one, we did an equal split on the increase and residential is 0.81 per cent and non-residential is 0.02 per cent. The average increase if your assessed value remains the same for residential, their taxes would increase $15.11 and non-residential would increase $1.11. Scenario two, we did a split on the assessment — residential would drop 4.76 per cent with a dollar value of $89.16. Non-residential would increase 11.81 per cent with an increase of $591.61,” she said. “With scenario three and four, we were just trying to make it somewhat equal. Scenario five was the increased footage at six per cent but they equal split on increase. The residential would go up 0.57 per cent with a dollar value of $10.67 and non-residential would decrease by 0.2 per cent which is a $10.08 decrease.”

Council carried first, second and third readings of the bylaw with scenario five, which is a $6 per frontage foot to all properties with the maximum frontage per property being 300 feet. 

Council also carried all three readings for Bylaw 976-21 Property Tax.

Estimated municipal revenues from all sources other than property taxation total $1,632,060 while estimated municipal expenses in the budget for 2021 is $2,345,326 and the balance of $713,266 is to be raised by general municipal property taxation.

The estimated amount required to repay principal debt to be raised by general taxation is $52,360. The estimated amount required for current year capital expenditures to be raised by general municipal taxation is $85,000.

Alberta School Foundation Fund is $171,591 from residential/farmland and $62,343 from non-residential, for a total of $233,934.

Taber and District Housing Foundation is $7,752 from residential/farmland, $64 from machinery/equipment and $1,938 from non-residential, for a total of $9,754.

Assessed value as shown on the assessment roll is residential ($67,172,150), farmland ($60,380), non-residential ($15,106,700), linear ($1,790,430) and machinery/equipment ($457,910) for a total assessment of $84,587,570. General municipal tax rates is 7.7130 for residential while farmland, residential, machinery/equipment and linear is at 17.2590.

Taber and District Housing sees a rate of 0.1153 for residential, farmland, machinery/equipment and non-residential.

School foundation sees 2.5222 for residential and farmland and 3.6896 for non-residential.

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