BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead homeowners will likely see their residential property tax bill increase, but if it does, it will not because of the mill rate.
On April 15, councillors approved the 2025 Property Tax Bylaw, setting the residential mill rate at 6.0101 per cent, a 2.2 per cent decrease over 2024, while non-residential, farmland, and linear and machinery and equipment properties remain unchanged at 18.1713 per cent. The minimum municipal tax levy for a property is $50.
The mill rate is the tax payable per $100,000 of assessed value.
Finance director Tamara Molzahn said administration considered several factors before setting the mill rates, including comparing the rates of neighbouring Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) or neighbouring communities, provincial government requisition increases, most notably to the school requisition, and how they would impact ratepayers.
She noted that most of the county's neighbours, except for the Town of Barrhead, have lower residential mill rates, using those communities' 2024 tax rates. The rates range from a low of 3.25 in Woodlands County to a high of 9.35 for the Town of Barrhead.
The Town of Barrhead approved its Property tax bylaw at the April 8 council meeting, setting the residential mill rate at 12.2730 per cent and the non-residential 19.1724 per cent. It should be noted that the tax rates include the school and social housing requisitions collected by the municipality on behalf of the province and the Barrhead Regional Aquatics Centre levy.
Moving on to the mill rate for farmland, again using the 2024 rates as a comparison, the County of Barrhead ranked second highest of all its ICF neighbours (Sturgeon County, Lac Ste. Anne County, Westlock County, the Town of Barrhead) at 18.1713 per cent.
Woodlands County was again the lowest at 3.2558, with Westlock County being the highest at 25 per cent. For the non-residential mill rate, Sturgeon County came in at 10.9170 per cent, with the highest being the rate belonging to WestlockCouty at 23.5 per cent.
"We are right in the middle of the pack to help attract non-residential investment," county manager Debbie Oyarzun said.
Requisitions
Molzahn said municipalities must collect requisitions on behalf of the province regarding the school and designated industrial requisitions and to Barrhead and District Social Housing Association for the social housing requisition.
"We have no control over those taxes, and we have to pay them, whether we collect them or not," she said.
The school requisition represents 21.7 of all taxes levied and is paid to the Alberta School Foundation Fund (public school system) and the Evergreen Catholic Separate Regional Division No. 2.
The municipality collects over $3 million in school requisitions, over $2.3 million from residential and farmland property owners and roughly $775,000 from non-residential property owners.
Molzahn said the $500,000 social housing requisition represents 1.6 per cent of all taxes levied.
What it means for the average residential ratepayer
Unfortunately, Molzahn said most ratepayers will see an increase in their tax bill.
She added that council lowered the municipal residential mill rate to offset the average increase in property assessment, but they have no control over school and social housing requisitions.
"This means people will see an increase because of the 3.8 per cent increase in requisitions," deputy reeve Marvin Schatz said, adding he wished there was a better way to highlight the difference between requisitions and the tax rate set by municipalities.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
