(file photo/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Municipal portion of tax bill to see no increase this year

May 4, 2021 | 10:43 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Taxpayers will see no increase to the municipal portion of their property tax bill this year. At Monday’s meeting council voted 8-1 in support of the property tax bylaw. A tax neutralization credit will be applied to property taxes which will keep the municipal portion of property taxes the same.

According to the City of Medicine Hat, the city’s tax base is comprised of education, municipal, and Cypress View Foundation taxes.

The average homeowner may see an increase of $25 to their tax bill due to rises in the provincially imposed education tax, and a slight increase in the Cypress View tax.

The approval of the bylaw requires $832,000 to come out of the city’s reserve fund in order to keep the municipal tax portion the same as last year.

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The city says $832,0000 is needed to keep the rate the same because of market losses caused by the pandemic.

Reacting to the approval of the bylaw Monday Mayor Ted Clugston said the city’s reserves stand to be in good shape for the future, despite the city using funds to keep taxes from increasing.

“Believe it or not in 2020, the city’s reserves actually increased year over year and that’s due to a number of factors, having a good year in electricity, closing in some wells at GENCO, decreased revenues in public services because of facilities aren’t open but also decreased expenses,” Mayor Clugston said.

The city also finished the year off in a surplus, according to Clugston.

As for how long the city can sustain a zero per cent municipal tax increase, the mayor said:

“That’s a good question because we do have, very, very, vast reserves still. So indefinitely we could for quite some time.”