Tax season is nearly upon the residents of Lloydminster and the mill rate bylaw is currently in the works for the city.
Read more: Council appoints members to assessment board
The City of Lloydminster is looking to set its taxation for the upcoming year, and due to various factors, the originally proposed tax increase has dropped.
“We went into a budget last fall with about a 4.5 per cent increase to meet the needs of the community based on the budget we’re operating in today,” said Lloydminster Mayor Gerald Aalbers. “After the assessment process was completed, we saw an increase in the value of assessments.”
The increase in the value of assessments was largely driven by inflation, not growth.
“Our growth is quite low in 2024. That growth helps pay for growth, and because our growth was low, we didn’t quite pick up those changes we would normally see, offset the mill rate a little,” said Scott Pretty, director of assessment and taxation.
The total taxable assessment for the 2025 tax year is $5.07 billion, a 5.09 per cent overall increase from 2024.
Coun. David Lopez says the inflation is a worry for him as they attempt to attract businesses into Lloyd.
“I look at the numbers and it scares me that some company that wants to come in (thinks) they’re going, ’Well, they’re just growing their tax base through inflation,’” said Lopez. “We’re not creating enough industrial properties as well. It just scares me that we could be not attracting some people because of our inflation instead of our growth.”
The increase through inflation is one of the reasons administration was okay with dropping the tax rate from 4.5 per cent to 2.37 per cent.
“It was also one of the reasons why we were, as administration, comfortable recommending a lower tax rate,” said city manager Dion Pollard. “The growth rate was because of inflation not because of actual growth. If it was actual growth, we would have been okay leaving it at 4.5 per cent.”
Pollard says since the assessment went up due to inflation, they lowered the tax rate to compensate, not wanting homeowners to get hit with inflation and a high tax increase.
The education levy is another piece of taxation the city is forced to undertake.
“The education levy is calculated by the province of Alberta, they set a mill rate. They send us a bill and say this is what you have to levy, here’s your residential portion and your non-residential portion,” said Pretty.
The money is collected and distributed to the school boards. On the other hand, Lloydminster’s own seamless education levy dropped 2.46 per cent.
Residential owners in Lloyd will see a 3.07 per cent overall increase, including the new infrastructure levy for this year’s taxation.
The items will return May 20 for 2nd and 3rd reading and property taxes are due upon mailing on June 6. Penalties begin after July 25.
Council voted in favour of giving the bylaw first reading.
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