Most County of Stettler taxpayers can expect modest increases on their tax bills this year after council approved a 3.5 municipal per cent tax rate increase this week.
County chief administrative officer Tim Fox said assessments have remained stable, which means most ratepayers can expect to see the increase on their bills due to municipal spending around or less than the rate of inflation.
Residents could see higher increases on their total tax bills because of the impact of the province’s education requisition, which typically makes up around half of tax notices. In the County of Stettler that requisition jumped 11 per cent for residential properties this year.
Since the county has no control over that requisition it did not calculate how that increase will affect the total tax bill. County tax bills also include requisitions for seniors housing, waste management and recreation.
Fox said the $30.7 million operating and $6.1 million capital budgets address the county’s pressing need to ensure that its roads are well maintained. More than $6 million has been spent on a program, now in its third year, to bring all the county’s roads up to snuff.
The county also put aside $350,000 into a reserve to build up a pool of money to be used for future gravel purchases, which are a significant expense for the county.
Council also voted to transfer $435,000 into a reserve to bankroll a proposed waste-to-energy plant in the county. Regina-based Prairie Bio-Gas Ltd. plans to convert municipal and agricultural solid waste into a synthetic gas using pyrolysis technology that uses heat in an oxygen-free environment.
A small test unit has been operating for about two years at the Alberta Innovates Technology Futures facility in Vegreville. The County of Stettler plant would be the first of its kind in North America.
Construction on the plant is not expected to start until next year. The final cost has not yet been determined.
Another $400,000 is going into a reserve to complete a rural water system and to go towards the Erskine reservoir.
Fox said the county has focused on building up its reserves in the last few years. The amount of money put away for future projects has grown to $12 million from $2 million seven years ago.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com