Callander council has approved the 2024 municipal budget, which forecasts a 4.5 per cent increase to the tax rate. Water rates rise an additional 2 per cent. The total municipal budget is just over eight million dollars.
Big-ticket projects planned for this year include building washroom facilities at the Municipal Dock, multiple road repairs, a new Municipal sign on Highway 11, upgrades to the museum, and repairing the roof over the Bill Barber Rink.
See: New Callander sign slated for 2024
For some perspective, a home with a $500,000 assessed value will see a monthly increase of $21.41 from the 4.5 per cent. On a $325,000 assessed value home, the increase will be $13.92. However, the tax rates will become official at a council meeting in March.
Why March? By then, the municipality will have “all of the information from agencies and boards” that deal with Callander, and waiting for those numbers allow staff to tweak the final numbers, if needed.
“We set a budget,” Callander’s Senior Municipal Director Ashley Bilodeau explained, “but let’s say hypothetically speaking, their numbers are much higher or much less than what we anticipated, we still have the ability to revisit the tax rate before setting the rates.”
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) has not re-assessed properties as expected. MPAC usually assesses property value every four years, but the last time it did so, was in 2016. MPAC noted in an email to BayToday "that property assessments distribute property taxes they do not determine property taxes. Decisions about how much tax to collect are made by local governments based on their budget requirements. Even though the assessed values of homes may increase following an assessment update, the overall tax level within a municipality does not change. Municipalities are required to reset their tax rates to offset the average change in property values as a result of reassessment."
This year’s estimated rate is less than last year’s which rang in at 7.6 per cent, with the water adding an extra 2.1 per cent. Council decided to use around $1.2 million from reserves to reach that number. For this budget, no funds were taken from reserves. However, money going to reserve funds will be reduced, namely the Infrastructure Reserves and the Community Development and Park Reserves.
See: It’s official, Callander has set 2023 tax rates
However, the municipality had money left over from the 2023 budget, and this surplus has been reassigned from the General Working Funds to various reserve funds. In total, just over one million dollars has been added to the Infrastructure, General Parks, and New Building Reserve funds. The Downtown and Waterfront Community Development reserve also received some of the remaining funds from 2023.
For more information regarding Callander’s 2024 budget, visit the municipality’s website under the Budget and Finance page.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.