NORTH BATTLEFORD - The City of North Battleford performed a redo of its 2022 mill rate bylaw after it was found they would be collecting more revenue than expected.
In a special meeting held Monday over the Zoom platform, council approved revising the mill rate bylaw, so that the mill rates accurately matched revenue in their budget.
City Director of Finance Brent Nadon explained what transpired to council at the special meeting.
“The property tax middle rates were originally approved by Council on July 18. However, during our preparation for tax notices, we performed a system on it and discovered an issue with some property tax adjustments not being taken into account in the new mill rate calculations. This could potentially result in us collecting about 1.2 per cent more revenue than required.
“As we strive to a model of an open and accountable government, we propose a small change to the mill rates to more accurately match our revenue with our budget.
“The impact will be a reduction or no change to all but the multi-residential, personal care home subclasses, which will see a small increase.”
Nadon outlined to council what the revisions mean compared to the rates that had been approved at council last Monday.
According to Nadon, the mill rate impact on average residential properties will be reduced from an increase of 4.3 percent down to 3.8 percent, or a dollar increase of $78. For average commercial, instead of a 3.94 percent average increase, it will be 1.66 percent or $136.39.
For most rate categories, there will be either no change or a decrease compared to what was originally approved last week, but the multi unit residential subclass will see its mill rate revised up from 1.9583 to 1.0780 mills, and the personal care home subclass is revised up from 1.0583 to 1.0780 mills. For the residential/condo class, commercial/industrial class, and the commercial/industrial large retail subclass, there will be a slight decrease in the mill rate as a result.
The revised bylaw passed in three readings at the meeting Monday. The expectation now is that tax notices will go out to North Battleford residents later this week. The deadline to pay remains Aug. 31.
