Morinville tax increase drops to 2% after 2020 Budget passes third reading

by Colin Smith

Morinville residents will see tax increases of 2% for residential property following adoption of the Town’s budgets for next year. Utility costs will also rise by about 5% for the average Morinville homeowner.

The 2020 Operating Budget and 2020-2039 Capital Plan were passed by Morinville Town Council at its regular meeting on Tuesday after being given a third reading.

Council also adopted bylaws setting new rates for water, sanitary sewer, stormwater and waste management services.

Following months of discussion, Council decided at this meeting to drop the residential tax rate increase from 3%, already down from an initially proposed 4%, to 2%.

That followed a decision to hold the split between residential and non-residential mill rates, through which commercial and industrial property owners pay at a higher rate than homeowners, to 1:1.1 rather than increasing it to 1:1.2 as called for in the Town of Morinville’s Long Term Financial Plan.

Taxes on the average Morinville home – taken to be valued at $334,000 — increase by an estimated $49 per year, less than the anticipated $73, while the tax increase on the average commercial property will be reduced by $200 per year and that of industrial property by $360 year.

The tax reductions will result in the loss of $232,000 in revenue for the Town of Morinville’s operations.

In its previous budget deliberation, Council passed amendments resulting in almost $900,000 in cuts to an initially proposed $22,880,704 in expenditures for 2020.

It continued making cuts at Tuesday’s meeting, with a net $10,000 removed from the programming budget of the Performing Arts Centre – the equivalent of one major show – and $50,000 from the pilot Storefront Improvement Program.

However, additional funding of more than $13,000 was provided for the Morinville Public Library.

Major changes had been adopted for the 2020-2039 Long Range Capital Plan, as part of which $3,764,058 expenditures were planned for the 2020 portion of the plan.

Utility costs will go up $73.49 per year for the average Morinville homeowner.

Water rates will rise by $17.09, sanitary sewer by $21.30, waste management by $5.70 and stormwater by $30.

The average household will pay $1,588.71 in utility costs next year, up from $1,514.63 in 2019.

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22 Comments

  1. How about 0% increase, if you can’t afford your spending you need to make changes. Why do these governments think we can afford to keep giving more and more so they can waste. I don’t know about anybody else but I want a tax decrease not increase. Quit stealing our money.

    • They cut over a million dollars from operational spending. And with a third less coming from the wonderful UCP… what did you expect them to do? Maybe you run next time and show us all how it’s done.

    • who ever agrees with tax increases from any level off government needs to go right now and look in the mirror and say to themselves why am I so stupid.

    • I like the idea that when I flush the toilet, poop goes somewhere and the bowl refills with new water… I like that when it rains, I don’t need to pull out a kayak to get downtown… I don’t like that taxes are increasing… but not as much as I don’t like sitting on a bucket in the morning and then getting my exercise by digging a hole in the back yard to empty said bucket… If I want exercise we have a facility for that.

    • Thomas Kirsop do you work for the government. The facility was a big waste off money and I get my exercise by working so the government can keep raising taxes and wasting money.

    • Stewart King Nope… I’m just a guy who likes to poop and understand that the pipes that take it away and the maintenance of the pipes that take it away cost money…

    • Is that your response? Seriously? Hey Thomas! Get out of that government office you’re in and meet me in my super big government office so we can figure out a way to raise his taxes even more.

      I no longer spend time ‘debating’ with simple people like yourself. Have a great holiday season.

  2. Are those numbers right in regards to utility bills? The math when you compare the monthly increase and your note regarding the overall yearly cost doesn’t add up

  3. Oh, and by the way, thank you council for giving yourselves big pay increases!

  4. I would hope that the tax increase stays low, look at the money they saved by selling all the snow plows and snow blowers! The roads are terrible and I haven’t seen any snow removal yet! It’s the only assumption I can make!

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