Q&A: Taxes and Services (and Community Schools)

I've received some questions over the last few days - most of them involved property taxes and what we get for our money in the Village.  Here's the questions and my answers.

Q:  How come the mill rate went down, but my taxes went up? 
A:  Beiseker's mill rate did actually drop by a small amount, however our overall assessment rose.  That means that some of the properties in the village actually went up in value from last year.

If your property was one of those, your taxes increased.  Most increases were small (less than $10/month), but a few of us took a bigger hit.  Tax payers can contest their assessment but they cannot contest their taxes.  Contact the Village Office (403-947-3774) for more information.

Q:  What do we get for our tax dollars, anyway?  
A: A small municipality must provide the same basic services as a large one.  Beiseker must provide its citizens with most of what Calgary provides. Your tax dollars pay for streets, roads, sidewalks, street lighting, road maintenance, water and sewer services, a fire hall, garbage pick-up and disposal, parks and recreation, public buildings, and parks along with a host of other things to keep this village running smoothly.

Q: We don't even have a fire department, do we?
A: On the contrary, our volunteer fire department is, in my opinion, one of the best in Canada!  That opinion is shared by others who know more about fire departments than I do! Our fire hall is open and manned twenty four hours a day, seven days a week for more than 340 days a year! I am very proud of our Beiseker Fire Department!

Q: You said Beiseker Community School was the only community school in Rocky View. What about Springbank Community High School?
A: To my knowledge, Beiseker and Springbank both were declared community schools.  That means they could go ahead with the process of becoming a community school.  But Beiseker was the only one to complete that process, so it became the only Rocky View School to be designated a Community School by the province.

Q: Is the village going to do anything about repairing or repaving the rest of the streets and sidewalks  in Beacon Heights?
A:  After we replaced the pavement on Chinook Crescent, the other streets in the subdivision showed their ages too.  We have a fair bit of grant money, but we have many improvement projects ready to go, too.

Council will have to crunch the numbers and see how much they can do with the funds we have and our priority list.  Those who are very concerned about the street of sidewalk in front of their home should.  If you're one of them, please, write a letter to council detailing your concerns.  It can be addressed to council via the Village of Beiseker (Box 349) or delivered directly to the Village Office.

Taxation: Setting the Mill Rate

Step one was the assessment; figuring out how much the entire municipality is worth (the Overall or Total Assessment). 

Step two is building a budget to determine how much the municipality needs to operate for one year.

Step three is setting a mill rate.  Setting the mill rate is really very simple.  All you have to do, is divide what you need into the overall (or total) assessment.  The mill rate is the number of dollars the property owner must pay, per thousand dollars of his property's value, as declared on the assessment.  For example; if a home's assessed value is $200,000 and the mill rate is set at 6.5 mills, the homeowner must pay 200 X 6.5 = $1300 in property tax.

Oops, not so fast!  The provincial government shoves its hand in there, too!  The Ministry of Education tells each municipality how much it will take to pay for education services in the area.  They don't ask, they don't advise, they just tell and take!  Alberta Education simply dips into each municipality's bank account a couple of times a year, and snatches out tens of thousands of dollars each time. 

If a municipality is having difficulty collecting its taxes, this makes the operation of that municipality even harder!  The province takes those funds out - whether or not the municipality has been able to collect them!   If some taxpayers are unable (or unwilling) to pay their taxes, the municipality suffers because it still must make sure it has the money in bank to pay the TOTAL bill for the provincial education portion of the property tax -- even though some of those dollars haven't been collected yet!

When you receive your tax notice, check down to see how much of that is going to the province.  It will be listed there as a mill rate for education.  This is added onto the municipality's mill rate. 

Excellent Turnout at our Spring Town Hall Meeting!

I was very impressed with the number of citizens who came out to our Spring Town Hall Meeting!  It was good to see!  After a short regular meeting of Council we opened the floor for questions from those assembled.  Topics addressed included streets, frost boils, the Bassano Station, storm water drainage, taxes, illegally parked vehicles, cluttered laneways, sidewalk construction, and house numbers.  I think we on council answered the questions fairly and accurately. 

One ratepayer had a question about mill-rates, assessments,  and taxes.  I realized that he might not be alone in his misunderstanding of that relationship.  We will try to clarify that issue before our tax notices come out, later this spring.

I was impressed by the numbers of citizens who came to Beiseker's defense when one citizen told us that our village was a terrible place to live.  Us five councilors and our village staff members  were moved by those positive comments that followed, and the applause they generated.  I think now we'll work harder to make our village an even better place to live.

I'm looking into some of the other inquiries made last night, and I will try to provide answers to you here, on Facebook, or in the Mainline Express newsletter.

Thank you all for coming!

Great Candidates' Forum!

I was very pleased to be able to attend the candidates' forum this past Monday evening.  I decided before I left home that I would listen and not speak at the forum.  I stuck to that.  All of those who came needed to hear from the candidates; not me!  I was very impressed with all three candidates.  They stated their cases well and explained their positions clearly.

One point mentioned was that of the high mill rate in the Village.  The insinuation was that a lower mill rate was preferable.

As explained in a blog post I made about a month ago, the reason our mill rate went up was that the total value of all our properties is lower this year than last!  If  the total value of all our properties had risen or stayed the same, our mill rate would have actually dropped.

The mill rate is set by council using these steps:

• After careful budgeting, council decides on the minimum amount of money needed to operate the Village for one full year.
• Council then looks at the total assesment and basically divides that figure by the amount required based on so many dollars taxed per thousand dollars of assesment.

Another point was that of providing recreational and cultural facilities in the Village.  One should always be aware that every public arena, library, swimming pool, playground, splash park, skate board park, art gallery - or any other cultural or recreational facility - built in Calgary is meant to serve, be maintained, and be funded by thousands of people (taxpayers)!  

Overall I was very impressed with the responses from the candidates and I am looking forward to having one of them join us around the council table!