Some unexpectedly positive news for most Red Deer ratepayers was delivered on Monday.
Although city council had set a tax increase of $4.61 per cent for 2023 earlier this year, the actual tax increase will actually come in much lower, going up by 2.46 per cent.
Joanne Parkin, the city’s revenue and assessment services manager, said this is because the final tax rate is made up of 75 municipal requisition, and 25 per cent provincial requisition (mostly education taxes).
This year’s provincial education requisition is decreasing by almost 3 per cent and the Bridges Community Foundation requisition is dropping by about 20 per cent from 2022.
These two declines brought down the final blended tax rate for Red Deer residents and business to an increase of 2.46 per cent.It means taxes for an average home with a value of $345,000 will go up by $6.78 per month.
Multifamily property taxes, however, will go up by 6.64 per cent.
Parkin said this is because multifamily properties had an above-average increase in assessed value, year over year, so will have a greater than average tax increase.
Mayor Ken Johnston said Red Deer does a great job of keeping taxes competitive. A graph showed Red Deer had a lower tax increase than Edmonton, Lethbridge and Grande Prairie, and only slightly higher than Calgary and Medicine Hat.
