Retirement from Municipal Politics

Yesterday was Nomination Day for municipal offices across the province.  I did not submit nomination papers which makes it official:  I am retiring from municipal politics.

This retirement comes without any malice!  It is simply time.  I have had the honor and pleasure of working with some great people over my almost thirty years as a village councilor in Beiseker.  We have accomplished some great things for this tiny village!

Beiseker is not out of the woods yet as far as our finances go, but we have survived one of the biggest economic down-turns this province has seen!  The provinces answer to our fiscal issues is simple; just raise property taxes!  Council has resisted that, and I hope they will continue to do so! 

Here's some things this Council can take credit for:

• We have been very successful at reducing the amount of back-taxes owing. This was  accomplished through many different programs, one of which is the monthly pay system.  Unfortunately, we still have a ways to go here!
• We have reduced the amount of "lost water" by the village so that Beiseker is selling most of the water it buys.
• This council has spearheaded a program to upgrade the streets.  So far, Fourth Ave., Seventh Street and First Avenue have benefited.  Our sidewalk replacement continues, too!
• We have created a program to replace faulty water valves around the village also saving lost water.
• We have our Public Works Department running extremely well.
• As a member of the Aqua-7 Regional Water Services Commission we have seen that organization become much more viable.  We survived the provincial government reneging on a deal to help us out, and we are now "in the black"!
• We started a "Building A Better Beiseker" project by upgrading the first block of our Main Street business district.  Hopefully as the economy picks up the project to revitalize the rest of Main Street will resume!
• We finally will see some action on dismantling and removing the now defunct railway museum.  We were unable to convince the federal government get a good accounting on where that half million dollars went! Hopefully that site will be cleaned up soon.
• I think we finally have our fire department woes solved.  The Beiseker Fire Department in the envy of many small municipalities and it continues to thrive. 
• We are in the process of subdividing and selling lots at the airport.  This will ultimately generate even more funds for our airport and village!

To mention a few!

To my fellow councilors and the village's Chief Administrative Officer with her staff;
thank you for your support, your advice and your candor.  All have been most valuable to me over the past years.

Sincerely,
Ray Courtman
Mayor; Village of Beiseker

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: Tax Collection

Once the mill rate has been set, the municipality can now prepare and send out its tax notices. 

There is a deadline the municipality must follow in sending out these notices, and a deadline by which those taxes must be paid.  When you receive your tax notice, check carefully to make sure you know what the last possible day is to pay your property taxes. 

Traditionally, municipalities charge huge penalty fees for late paid taxes to encourage folks to pay on time.  This is because the municipality must have the money in the bank when the province comes calling to grab their Education Portion! 

Most municipalities in Alberta have two methods of paying property taxes.  Method One is simply a lump sum payment on or before the tax due date. 

Method Two is much easier in my opinion.  It involves paying monthly instalments throughout the year.  We've been on Method Two for a few years now and it's great!  If you think this might work for you, contact the Beiseker Village Office (403-947-3774) and get the details from them.

If property taxes are unpaid, the municipality has a long and involved procedure to collect them.  The property owner can come into the municipal office and work out a payment plan to cover the amount owing, plus the penalties. 

The municipality also has the right to take the property and sell it to recover those unpaid taxes.  There is a time frame which must be followed.  I believe it's three years.  If the property is seized and sold, the municipality will subtract the amount owing on back taxes with penalties - and then place the remainder of the selling price in the bank. The former owner can apply to have this remainder returned to him.

Municipal Taxation (aka Property Tax) is an important part of keeping our municipalities operating smoothly.  I haven't met one person in my life who looks forward to paying their property taxes!   But almost everyone I meet understands why these taxes are so important to a municipality. 

I hope this series has helped you understand how Municipal Taxation works and why it is so important.

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. 

Taxation: Market Value Assessment

Here's my first of a series of blogs on municipal taxation.  I am writing these to address a concern by a citizen at last Monday's Town Hall Meeting.

The biggest source of income for all municipalities in Alberta is property taxation.  Every year, each municipality goes through a complicated procedure to figure out how much each property holder in that municipality will pay in property taxes.  Here are the steps;

Assessment:  First, the municipality must establish how much each property is worth so it may be taxed accordingly.  A few years ago, the Alberta provincial government insisted that the municipalities go to a system called "Market Value Assessment" aka MVA.  That means that each property would be assessed based on what the owner might get, if he were to sell it on the market today.

That works in larger municipalities, where many properties are bought and sold each year - but for small communities like ours, assessors must rely on a formula based on the selling price of similar properties in other similarly sized communities.  I think this system is seriously flawed --because finding a municipality exactly like ours is next to impossible.

Another problem with the MVA is the hardship it creates with seniors on a fixed income.  In Calgary, middle-class homes purchased in the 1950s and 1960s are now considered "inner city," and are assessed at millions of dollars!  Their assessments are so high, that those seniors who bought those homes 50 years ago can't afford the $500/month in property taxes.  They are priced out of their own homes and forced to move!

Larger municipalities can afford to have a "tax department," which can assess properties and handle any appeals.  Smaller communities like Beiseker have to hire an assessment company to do our assessments.

Every property owner will receive a assessment notice, usually in the spring of each year.  Property owners can appeal their assessment -- although there is a fee to do that. Property owners cannot appeal their taxes, only their assessments.

After all the assessments are completed, the assessors send the municipality a Total Assessment figure.  That represents what they think the total worth of the municipality.

Stay tuned tomorrow to find out how the municipality uses that figure to decide how much you pay in property taxes.

Many Taxes, One Pocket

It's no secret that one of the government's main source of revenue is direct taxation.  Each level of government has been given certain methods of gathering money from Canadians. 

The federal and provincial governments collect income taxes.  Our national government and most provinces (except Alberta) gather sales taxes.  Provinces tax things like liquor and tobacco (so-called "sin taxes"), while the provinces and the federal government both tax gasoline and vehicles. 

Municipalities tax properties - but the provinces have a hand out there, collecting its education portion of property taxes.  There is also the 'trickle down' tax dollars; the federal and provincial governments send a trickle of dollars down to the level (or levels) below them.

It's all very complicated, but what many of our elected MPs, MLAs and municipal councilors might forget sometimes is that all of these various levels of taxes are paid for out of one pocket.

The same person who pays his property taxes also pays provincial and federal income taxes.  The money used to pay property tax, liquor taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes and  other taxes has already been taxed by the federal government before the taxpayer is even allowed to put his wages in his pocket!

All taxes are paid for out of one pocket; the taxpayers pocket! 

All elected officials; municipal, provincial, and federal, must be constantly reminded of this very fact.

The Provincial Budget

A little over a week ago the provincial government came down with its new budget.

Premier Alison Redford had assured us that she would not be downloading any financial difficulties to the municipalities. I have examined the budget quite carefully, and I participated in a conference call with Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths and Transportation Minister Ric McIver the day after the budget was brought down. I disagree!

Here are some of my concerns regarding this budget and how it affects our little municipality.

• STEP (or, Summer Temporary Employment Program) was a grant so that we may hire students to work for the village over the summer.  It's been scrapped! This means that if the village wishes to hire students this summer, it will have to come up with the money itself.
• The Municipal Sustainability Initiative grants are continuing at their existing rate for this year, however the future of that program is in jeopardy. We used this program to upgrade the first block of our Main Street.  We were hoping that this program would continue so we may be able to upgrade the remainder of Main Street.
• I was unable to ascertain the future of the Seniors' Property Tax Assistance Program.  It will exist for 2013 but after that it's anyone's guess.  The program gave some tax relief to some seniors who have been caught by MVA (Market Value Assessment) and are, in my opinion, paying far more in property taxes than they should be.  Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths' office said they would find out what was happening here and get back to me. 
• Transportation Minister Ric McIver told us that almost all smaller projects have been put on indefinite hold.  Beiseker relies on those smaller projects!  But I hope the agreed changes to Highway 72 (North Road) will still go ahead this spring!
• The Water For Life program has been drastically reduced, but I understand the province will continue to fund accepted projects at the 90% level.  You will recall that Beiseker's regional water system (called Aqua 7 Regional Water Service Commission) was originally funded about 40% by the province.  Looks like there's not much money to help us out, there!
• There was no relief mentioned for small municipalities who have to pay their Education Portion of the property taxes in full to the provincial government -- even though they haven't collected that money yet!  Beiseker has around $250,000 owing in unpaid taxes but the province still yanks tens of thousands of dollars out of our account for the Education portion.  No questions, no comments, no deferral; nothing!
• I'm worried that over the next twelve months, other small programs and grants will be discontinued while the provincial government goes through its belt-tightening.  If Beiseker wishes these programs to continue, the money will have to come from our property tax pockets!

In my opinion, that's where we stand!  Most of these cuts are still in the "wait and see" file.

I hope we'll get more details in the weeks to come.