Cochrane council has opted to raise property taxes by 10 per cent in 2022 in an effort to maintain town service levels and operations after four years of rejecting increases.
In a regular council meeting Dec. 13, councillors Susan Flowers, Alex Reed, Tara McFadden and Morgan Nagel chose to vote in favour of the increase, while councillors Marni Fedeyko and Patrick Willson, who have both been consistently vocal opponents of the budget throughout deliberations, gave a thumbs down.
"Ten per cent on top of recent announcements of increased costs in food, utilities and everything else — I cannot support an organizational structure of bringing us to where we're gonna support a population of somewhere near 50,000 people when we don't have 50,000 people and I believe we can just slow it down," said Coun. Fedeyko.
"That increase does not need to be felt all at once. I'm not opposed to a tax increase, I'm just not in favour of how this was laid out."
Coun. Wilson was in favour of a smaller increase of six per cent in 2022, citing that he is still unclear on some of the new managerial positions being created within the budget.
Coun. Nagel said he wanted to vote against the budget, but was compelled to vote in favour based on council feeling the "blow back of millions of dollars of expenses that are out of their hands and the cost of everything, everywhere going up."
He made it clear that his vote is a one-off to allow administration to get caught up and will not be a new normal given his belief that voters put him in chambers to be fiscally responsible.
"I honestly see supporting this organization as properly funded as the financially responsibly solution for our community, but it's the one year I'm doing it," he said. "Moving forward, I'm not coming back here and doing a big 10 per cent tax increase."
The property tax rate equates to a $18.75 increase per month, not including adjustments to utility costs such as water, sewer, storm sewer and waste and recycling, which puts the total increase around $25.55 per month for the average household assessed at $455,900.
Coun. Reed said no one is pleased about the increase but the way things are trending, it was inevitable.
"No one's happy about a tax increase, especially after four years of low to no tax increases, but the reality is that given the current and future situation, we simply can't live off growth," he said. "It's simply not sustainable."
Cochrane has grown at a rapid rate and is viewed as a desirable place to live, Coun. McFadden added, believing that the budget would help them to not only manage growth but to better plan for the future.
"While no one wants to champion a cost that is a higher bill for anybody, these are costs that are realistically needed to cover the type of community we want to be," she said.
The $68.24-million 2022 budget balloons about 13 per cent over 2021, with an increase of $7.8 million, and with $3.6 million offset by the growth in the town's property assessment. Tax levy and requisitions account for $32.88 million and $29.4 million is being dedicated to capital projects.
More increases are expected for the next two budgets of the three-year plan. In 2023, the operational budget calls for $72.2 million and in 2024, $75.8 million.
