“Over the last four years the current council has raised municipal taxes less than 0.5% per year. This has been achieved by asking town administration to deliver a yearly budget showing a zero increase. Council then decides what are hot spots and may choose to increase funding in those areas. The areas that the present council has increased funding in have primarily been in policing, community grants (handy bus) and technology (improving fiber optics to promote business growth). I would continue the practice of requesting zero increase budgets.
You will have noticed that your yearly tax bill has gone up more than % per year. Over the past four years your Provincial School taxes have gone up an average of 2.82% per year. Cochrane has the some of lowest residential taxes in the region, and the practice of asking for zero increase has also been applied to council wages. That makes your council one of the lowest paid councils for a town our size in Alberta.”
