Property taxes in Fort McMurray are about to get a lot higher.
In the Province’s 2013 budget, the government increased Wood Buffalo’s education property tax payments by over 16 million dollars.
The city’s director of Assessment and Taxation Brian Moore said the province has been pretty clear about how they want the city to come up with the extra money.
“What they have said is, ‘you know what, we want you to increase the collection from the residential group of properties by 47%.’ So the biggest hit by far is going to be your average taxpayer,” said Moore.
Moore says it will cost the average homeowner about $400 this year, and another $400 next year.
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen said he and Fort McMurray-Conklin MLA Don Scott had conversations with the Minister about phasing in the increase over a longer period of time, but that the current increase is what they were able to negotiate.
The move comes after the province decided to phase out property tax mitigation, a policy introduced in 2000, which controlled the amount the city had to pay.
But because of the subsidies being contributed by other communities, it means that most of Alberta will see their education property taxes go down.
“So other people in the province were paying higher than what would be the normal rate for them,” said Allen.
“So, at the end of the day, about 80% of the province is going to experience a drop in their property taxes.”
If it was up to Allen, the mitigation never would have happened 13 years ago.
“Quite frankly, I think we would have been in a far better situation if we never had a mitigation strategy in the first place,” he said.
“Because we would have just seen that gradual increase every year instead of it being done in a lump sum.”
April 11, 2013
