County passes Tax Mill Rate Bylaw

During a recent Lethbridge County council meeting May 15, an RCMP report was submitted to council for consideration.

Cst. Darrell Craig of the Picture Butte RCMP provided information regarding RCMP activities in Lethbridge County, including a discussion on the recent sign shootings in the area.

Craig noted the RCMP has been in contact with Lethbridge Fish and Game regarding the issue.

“We talked about putting game cameras out in the areas that it happens. The only problem with that is — a game camera costs a lot more than a sign does. They’d end up, in the end, getting shot up,” said Craig, during his presentation to council, adding other options in regards to cameras being installed in troubled areas have also been considered.

Councillors brought up the notion of a reward system being implemented to help curb the vandalized areas.

“I’ve been tracking areas where things have been happening,” said Craig.

“The last time that there was a shooting involved incident was Mar. 19. We’ve had other incidences of vandalism where people have actually drove over signs and stuff but it seems that the actual shooting has stopped,” he added.

The following are year-end statistics from January 2013-December 2013, listed in Craig’s report to council. Revenue for 2013 $54,055, which amounts to: Speeding (71 per cent), Overweight (11 per cent), Intersection (seven per cent), Other Moving (10 per cent) and Documents (one per cent).

Year-to-date from January 2014-May 2014 revenue $15,010. The following are percentages of violation tickets by category. Speeding (24 per cent), Overweight (38 per cent), Intersection (18 per cent), Other Moving (nine per cent) and Documents (three per cent).

During the meeting council also unanimously passed the motion to accept the 2014 Tax Mill Rate Bylaw.

According to the report to council, the tax levy is calculated as: Assessment times Mill Rate equals the tax levy. The following are calculations included in the report to council. Lethbridge County Tax Levy $13,484,820 (3.99 per cent increase), Lethbridge Regional Waste Levy $379,695 (2.80 per cent increase), Green Acres Foundation Requisition $221,339 (5.20 per cent increase) and Alberta Education Requisition (4,673,450 (1.20 per cent decrease).

The report stated the total assessment in place for the 2014 tax year includes: $27,358,200 residential assessment increase from 2013, consisting of $15,854,290 new growth and $11,503,910 inflation and $56,008,210 increase in the non-residential assessment base.

According to the report to council, this is attributable to $47,793,900 of growth and $8,214,310 of inflation in the commercial/industrial and linear property (pipelines and power generation) base. There is a $34,420,370 increase in the linear assessment base.

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