OLDS — Home owners and business owners could soon receive tax rebates from the town because the assessed value of property didn’t fall as much as town officials had anticipated last year.
Town council has agreed to discuss the matter during a council meeting.
If that move is approved, the average residential property would see a rebate of $37 and the average non-residential property would see a rebate equivalent to $148, finance director Sheena Linderman said.
“I do want to reiterate that these are all averages. As with any average, there are properties that will fall below or above this,” Linderman said.
It was suggested the town’s capital budget (for various town improvements) could also be increased $8,476,600 to $12,684,919.
Linderman provided that information during a presentation to council’s policies and priorities meeting on April 6.
She said last year, the town had anticipated a two per cent drop in the assessed value of property.
However, once the final figures were in, the drop wasn’t that severe. The taxable assessment for 2020 turned out to be up by 1.1 per cent instead.
Linderman told council that a two per cent rebate to both residential and non-residential properties would cost the town about $193,000 in potential tax revenue.
She and chief administrative officer Michael Merritt explained that council approves its budget each December, using property assessments they believe to be as accurate as possible.
However, “as you know, that number changes throughout the year,” Merritt said.
Because the drop in assessed value wasn’t as high as predicted, the town ended up with an increase in tax revenues of $364,787.
Councillors were given some options as to what could be done with that windfall.
One was to provide the tax rebates. Linderman wrote in a report that that could be done while still maintaining a balanced budget.
However, that would still leave some money left over, so another option was to provide a COLA (cost of living allowance) for town employees who haven’t had one for a while, due to the pandemic and other tough economic times in the community.
It was also suggested that some money be moved back into the town’s tax stabilization reserve.
Another proposal is to put some money back into town coffers, which, among other things, would cover the cost for a summer student who would fill in for community peace officers when they go on vacation or become ill.
