Elk Point Town Council gave approval to its 2013 taxation rate bylaw May 13 voting to keep the overall mill rate in line with the last year. The residential mill rate is set a 9.996 mills and the business rate is 22.5 mills.
“It has been our intention to keep our taxes as low as possible,” Mayor Parrish Tung said following the meeting. He added that encouraging economic development in the town goes a long way towards easing the stresses of increasing costs of maintaining infrastructure and operating the town while being able to hold the line on taxation.
“Only by expanding our tax base can we handle the increases in operating expenses,” Tung said.
The Town’s 2013 operating budget forecasts real property tax revenue at $1.53 million with another $64,000 in linear property tax. Of the total tax revenue collected, an estimated $365,000 in school requisition goes to the Province for education, a seven per cent increase over the 2012 school requisition. Some neighbouring communities saw more significant increases in their provincial education taxes, such as Bonnyville, which jumped by 19 per cent this year and St. Paul, which increased by 15 per cent over last year.
With an operating budget of $4,049,800 in 2013, some of the projected expenditures include: administration - $349,600, public works - $145,700, streets - $262,300, water - $348,700, garbage -$164,600. FCSS - $48,900, land development - $1,124,500, recreation - $79,000 and library - $54,500.
In a written report from Town Manager Myron Goyan to council, he described the municipality’s financial position year to date as “we are not doing too bad. We are using $290,989 of our line of credit. We have a construction loan for the Industrial Park of $300,000 and we have $207,881 in a term deposit. So we are using $383,107. As we sell more lots our position will improve.”
He noted sale agreements of $560,000 on the town’s residential and industrial lots to date this year.
In discussing the town’s yet to be approved 2013 capital budget, Goyan indicated in his report it will “require some serious thought on which ones to proceed with this year.” On the list is the sewage lagoon at a cost of $1.9 million and the water reservoir at a cost of $1.2 million, among others. The town is counting on grants totaling close to $2.1 million to offset the costs of these lagoon and water storage projects, but Goyan indicated there is no commitment from the Province as to when or if the town can expect funds.
“It’s a matter of they (grants) are there, but we won’t get them until 2014 or 2015, so do we go into interim financing,” Goyan asked council.
Council referred the capital budget back to public works to prioritize projects before making a decision as to what projects would proceed this year.