By Glory Przekop

County of Grande Prairie sets budget, taxes to go up

Apr 17, 2018 | 12:27 PM

The County of Grande Prairie has finalized its 2018 budget at $155.4 million dollars. Of that total, $80.8 million is for operating expenses, $74.6 million for capital projects.

County CAO Bill Rogan says most of the capital portion is for road projects.

“We’ve just got a number of shorter (projects), in the range of one to three kilometres, spread across the County. That is not uncommon, trying to stretch out some of our current paving system a little and connect more people to pavement.”

Council has approved a final 2018 budget that calls for a 2.68 percent increase in average farmland taxes, 1.8 percent for residential and .82 percent for non-residential properties.

Rogan says projected revenue from linear assessments, a number that comes from the province, was lower than expected.

Plan Ahead

Why Would You Pre-Plan Your Funeral?

Apr 03, 2024

Dying away from home

What Happens if You Die Away From Home?

Mar 04, 2024

Flag Retiring Ceremony

What Do You Do With Worn-Out Flags?

Feb 01, 2024

“They’re usually provided to us in September and they were last September, but, surprising to us, the numbers they provided in September were actually lower. That’s never occurred in my time with the County. That did leave us a deficit from interim (budget) to final (budget) of about a million dollars.”

The residential tax increase works out to $49 for the average home.

“There’ll be some market-value changes as well. We have seen a slight uptick in the price of a home, but not to the degree we’ve seen in years past. That will vary on where you live in the County, as far as what you may have seen as an increase or decrease in your market value,” adds Rogan.

A release from the County says taxable assessment grew by $269 million dollars in 2017, with $222.5 million of that in growth and $46.6 million in assessment increases.

– with files from Curtis Galbraith