The majority of those that pay taxes in Ponoka County won’t see a difference in the amount they will pay for 2018.
Ponoka County council approved its annual budget during a meeting on March 9, where property tax rates across the board stayed the same as in 2017. The residential rate remains at 1.69, farmland stays at 5.995 and with the rest — which includes non-residential and linear — is static at 10.82 in a budget that will total $33.05 million.
The amount of property tax the county will raise this year is estimated to be higher by about $44,000 — totalling about $2.64 million — the increase is simply due to new construction being in the mix.
“The increase is coming strictly from new assessment due to new buildings, such as Morskate Manufacturing, now being added to the tax assessment roll,” explained county CAO Charlie Cutforth.
As for the rest of the budget’s revenue side, there are only a few differences from the previous year.
The county will receive $200,000 from Rimbey to pay for custom road work it will do on the town-owned portion of Simpson Road, with those funds to be set into a reserve so the county can start saving to pay for the more than 100 kilometres of roads that will need to be repaved in the future.
Meanwhile, there will be an increase in revenue for the fire department — estimated at around $60,000 — as a result of taking over service delivery in Ponoka.
However, that will be initially offset this year by capital and operational expenses for the department. These include an estimated $600,000 to pay for an expansion to the current East District fire hall, a $289,000 payment (includes depreciation and less amount town owed county) to Ponoka to purchase its two-year old fire truck, an $18,000 increase to fire dispatch services and $60,000 to have a radio repeater moved from Rimbey to a tower on the west side of Gull Lake to significantly increase the coverage area.
There are other spending increases, but these mostly involve capital investments and money for community projects, while Cutforth noted the budget does include very slight increases in wages and benefits across the board.
The largest jump comes in donations with the county providing $500,000 to the Rimbey Agrim Centre. This is so the project can be completed. There’s also $80,000 for the Rimbey racetrack upgrades — doubling the donation budget from last year to just over $1 million.
On the capital side, the county has four new graders coming, a $450,000 new fire truck and will be looking to start work on the many local bridges that are reaching the end of their lifespan.
Large surplus
Meanwhile, at the county’s meeting March 13, council found out just how solid its financial position is and that it can handle the increase in spending, plus absorb another potential huge loss in taxes.
Tim Rowland of Rowland, Parker and Associates presented the results of the 2017 audit that saw the county realize a $3.66 million surplus on net tax revenue of 19.3 million. The surplus was approved to be placed into reserves and that amount will soon be reduced.
“The county will use $1.8 million of those reserves to pay for the gravel pit that council agreed to purchase in December,
Cutforth said, adding $240,000 will also be placed into a fire department reserve.