A property tax increase for city residents will stay around .51 percent. This comes after a tax increase of .71 per cent was proposed to cover a recently added $200,000 large scale tourism event fund. Mayor Bill Given says moving around some money at the latest council meeting allowed for a lower tax increase.
“Essentially, council decided to use some of the 2016 operating surplus and move that into 2017. The transfer lowered the property tax increase.”
There was two ways that could have worked to cover the money.
“It could have been operationalized in the 2017 budget or we could have took it from the surplus. Council chose the surplus option. That means in future years the council have to decide how they want to accept that cost. It gives them an opportunity to pilot that program.”
He explains that about $2 million from the city of Grande Prairie will go into the provincial education requisition that has been increased this year. The cost of that will make the total tax increase around 1.2 per cent altogether.
