Okotoks residents may need to brace themselves for a bit of a shock when they open their property tax bill this year.
Homeowners are facing the biggest tax increase in 10 years and the provincial government’s education requisition accounts for more than half of the increase.
The tax bill on the typical home in town will go up by 6.9 per cent. This works out to an extra $182.58, bringing the final bill up to $2,830.
The education portion of the tax bill, which goes into provincial coffers for kindergarten to Grade 12 education, will go up by $97.47, while the Town’s share of the tax bill will rise by $67.47. Tax requisitions by the Foothills Foundation and Okotoks Public Library amount make up the remainder of the increase.
Town councillors did what they could to keep the municipal tax increase down, approving a 3.9 per cent increase last week. This is down from the five per cent increase approved in December.
On the other hand, the provincial education taxes are going up by 12 per cent and have seen steep increases for the past four years. Revenue from provincial education taxes only covers 30 per cent of the cost of K to 12 education.
Former municipal affairs minister Doug Griffiths defended the tax increase and said revenue from education taxes goes completely to education.
Without them, he said the province would need to cut back in education or elsewhere, such as MSI payments to municipalities.
“Education has to be funded one way or another,” he said.
Griffiths said there needs to be a larger discussion regarding taxes and how government infrastructure and services are paid for.
“Shifting money from one hand to another is not a solution and that’s why we need to have a bigger discussion.”
The Province needs to stop hiding behind municipalities and get out of municipal property taxes.
Although its understandable why the Province wouldn’t want to take back the education requisition when they can keep claiming they are not raising taxes.
Taxpayers can see where the money is going on their property tax bill, but most people are going to blame the town for the rising bottom dollar.
Griffiths says shifting taxes isn’t the answer, but that is exactly what the Province has done by passing their taxes on to the municipal
bill.
