Council approves tax rates; people paying more this year

By Rob Vogt

Tax notices went out in the mail last week after Claresholm town council approved its 2025 tax rates with a 6.17 percent overall increase.
At its May 12 meeting, council passed the final two readings of the town’s property tax rate bylaw.
Although council actually reduced the tax rate, there was a dramatic increase in property assessment meaning actual taxes increased for most property owners.
Council gave first reading to the tax rates at its April 28 meeting.
A written report from administration explained property taxes represent a primary source of revenue for supporting municipal operations and services.
Tax rates are established annually following council’s adoption of the annual operating and capital budgets, and once the annual property assessment roll has been prepared.
The annual property tax rate is determined by dividing the total tax levy required by the total assessed value within each property class or subclass.
For the 2025 taxation year, property taxes will be calculated using the 2024 property assessment values, as of Dec. 31, 2024.
In addition to municipal tax rates, the municipality is required to levy taxes to fund external requisitions such as the Alberta School Foundation Fund and the Porcupine Hills Lodge Foundation.
Each of these tax rates must be presented separately on the annual tax notice provided to property owners.
The Town of Claresholm has annexed additional lands within the town’s boundaries, from the Municipal District of Willow Creek under annexation agreements. As part of these agreements, the annexed lands are to be taxed at the M.D. rates for a specified period or until the lands are developed, whichever comes first.
Currently, three annexation agreements remain in effect with the following terms:
• 2017 annexation, with the tax rate agreement in place for 25 years, expiring in 2042.
• 2021 annexation, with the tax rate agreement in place for 10 years, expiring in 2030.
• 2024 annexation, with the tax rate agreement in place for 15 years, expiring in 2038.
The M.D. adopted its 2025 tax rate bylaw on April 9, 2025. These rates are reflected in the bylaw and will apply to the annexed lands in accordance with the respective agreements.
It was noted that within the approved 2025 budget, this tax rate bylaw proposes a tax revenue increase for municipal purposes of 6.17 per cent, or $239,088, over 2024.

While there are several contributing factors such as inflation, to the increase, a significant portion is related to the loss of operating grant funding that offset some program services and staffing costs related to economic development and family and community support services.
Although there is an increase to the 2025 budget over 2024, the assessed property values also increased due to inflation/market values and growth.
Residential assessments increased by 14.8 per cent and 5.3 per cent for non-residential, therefore resulting in a decrease to the 2025 municipal tax rates.
Based on the recommendation from the audit and finance committee, who reviewed and discussed tax-rate options at their April 3, meeting, the 2025 municipal portion of the property tax rates proposed within the bylaw are down.
The residential tax rate goes down 6.549 per cent and the non-residential rate goes down 3.494 percent from 2024.
The total tax rate including requisitions will also be down. The residential rate goes down 4.404 per cent, and the non-residential rate goes down 1.487 per cent from 2024.
The tax rate bylaw also imposes the tax rates for tax requisitions for the Alberta School Foundation Fund, which is the education tax requisition; the Porcupine Hills Lodge Foundation, which is the home for the aged requisition; and the Designated Industrial Property Requisition.
It was stressed town council has no control over the amounts required to collect, nor their corresponding tax rates. They are determined simply by the requisitioning body and assessment values.
The education requisition is up by 15 per cent, representing $218,400. With assessment inflation and growth there is one percent decrease in the residential requisition tax rate and a 1.6 percent increase to the non-residential requisition tax rate.
The Porcupine Hills Lodge Foundation requisition is up 5.39 per cent, representing $10,750.
However, similar to the education requisition, due to the increase in assessment values, the tax rate will decrease by 11.26 per cent for 2025. This rate is the same for residential and non-residential.
While there are reductions to the majority of the tax rates, rate payers will see an increase on their tax notices due to the increased overall funding required for both tax support and requisitions.