ST. PAUL – Town of St. Paul residents will see a three per cent tax rate increase, after council approved its 2025 operating budget on March 24. But property owners may notice an even bigger jump in their overall tax bills.
Mitchel Bachelet, chief financial officer with the Town of St. Paul, told council that among the reasons for the overall increase is the province’s increase to the education property tax requisition, or the Alberta School Foundation Fund (ASFF).
Surplus
The Town of St. Paul is projecting a $454,569 surplus, which is slightly higher than projections from the interim budget.
“We had an expectation that assessments were going to come in lower,” CAO Steven Jeffery said. “However, assessments came back better than expected, creating more municipal tax revenue than projected.”
Another factor boosting the Town’s revenue is the provincial government increasing the Grants in Place of Taxes (GIPOT) program’s funding.
The provincial government does not pay property taxes for provincially owned buildings like the courthouse or the St. Paul Provincial Building.
GIPOT is a discretionary provincial grant in lieu of the provincial government paying municipalities property taxes. In 2022, the government cut the amount the program provides to municipalities equivalent to 50 per cent of those properties’ tax values.
In March, the province announced increasing the amount back to 75 per cent. It should add about $60,000 of revenue for the Town of St. Paul.
Other adjustments include loan payments for the MD Foundation and the Raw Water Upgrade project reduced to one payment instead of two, the addition of a municipal policing committee to the budget, and an increase for curling rink building repairs.
Miller said some of the money from the surplus will go into reserves, which has depleted over the past few years.
“In order for us to [do] projects, we had intended to refill some of that reserve that we had pulled from,” said Miller.
Education tax and MD foundation
After being frozen last year, the education tax rate will increase to $2.72 per $1,000 of property value for homes and farmland across the province, and $4 per $1,000 for businesses, according to information from the Government of Alberta.
The government projects the total education tax collected to rise from $2.7 billion in 2024-25 to approximately $3.1 billion in 2025-26.
The government says this will help fund schools as student numbers grow in the province.
Requisition for the Town of St. Paul will increase by eight per cent, while the County of St. Paul will see an increase of 10 per cent.
Bachelet said requisition for the MD of St. Paul Foundation will increase, as well. The MD of St. Paul Foundation manages low-income housing and rental programs for seniors, as well as families. Among the properties the foundation oversees is Sunnyside Manor in St. Paul, along with other properties in St. Paul, Elk Point, Mallaig and Ashmont.
Miller explained that aside from the three per cent mill rate increase decided by the Town, the increase in requisitions is outside the municipality's control.
Coun. Nathan Taylor noted that residents who are concerned about the education tax requisition increase need to reach out to their MLA.
