Here is the best answer to "Is the municipality going to be collecting more taxes than it did last year"
2010
General Municipal Taxation $6,432,821
ASFF------------------------$2,366,925
Seniors Housing------------$ 184,542
Total-----------------------$8,984,288
2011
General Municipal Taxation $6,555,990
ASFF------------------------$2,542,134
Seniors Housing------------$ 184,542
Total-----------------------$9,282,666
An Increase of $298,378 or 3.3% that's not 0%
Spring Cleanup
Will now be called "Large Item Residential Pickup"
Taxpayers that meet the following criteria will be provided with this service.
Sixty five (65) years or older and those with disabilities (This was not defined at this point)
Will have three items to be picked up.
You will be required to go into the Municipal Office between May 9 to May 20th, you will be required to specify the three items you are having picked up.
Items will be picked up between May 24 to June 3.
26 comments:
The clean up is a joke. Seniors and handicapped what else do we have here?
I'm over 65 and am fortunate to live quite comfortably on a good pension and investment income. It is absolutely insane that I and others like me should get subsidized junk pickup. There are huge problems facing this municipality, and social tinkering by Council is not going to get the job done. For god's sake, kill this spring cleanup thing, and deal with the real problems.
Is it not against the Canadian Constitution to discriminate against somebody because of their age?
Just a question.
Why does change always seem like its negative in the Crowsnest Pass?
Keith
So who wants to bet a dollar this is the last year of cleanup.
Which really pisses me off, because I am one that likes to have it.
Whatever happened to the no tax increase, change for the better new Councillors we put in place.
Same old same old.
Dean cut the crap, in this town we get great service for what we pay in taxes. I have lived all over Alberta and Ontario for the last fourty years. You and your kind have no idea how good you have it here.
I don't know where the previous poster has lived but....he has no idea about taxes. Our roads are a mess....advertising in 2 papers...our council is too busy playing politics in the community. Calgary for an example has taxes that are 50% less than they are here and the roads get plowed. Get Real.
Have you drove by the former Mayor's House lately. When the community standards bylaw was first passed he actually started to clean up his yard.
Has the new council stopped the enforcement?
Wishful thinking maybe! he is a senior hopefully he will designate three of his wrecks for pickup.
LOL, Calgarys taxes are not any where near 50 % less than here, and a residential street never gets plowed.Also the city of Calgary bill is much greater than our municipal bill.Calgary is also so deep in debt it is not even funny.
GET REAL
My taxes are 50% less in Calgary!!!
With an assessment of 500,000.00 on both houses. My taxes in Calgary are 2180.00. Here they are close to 5000.00. That makes them more than
double here. What do I get for my 5 grand? The better part of nothing!!!
Then go back to Calgary and stay there!
Stupid comment.
If all us folks went back to Calgary half your homes would be empty, who would pay taxes.
I shop every time I'm in town can these local businesses afford to not have us.
Then look at culture if it was not for us weekenders what would this town have?
Lets face it its not the weekenders whose yards are full of garbage and crap.
Look at your volunteers the locals got tired years ago, most things are done by weekenders that want to improve this community.
Anyway another twenty years we will all be retired here and be in a strong enough majority that, things will really change.
Look at the cleanup its not for us weekenders, we are use to taking care of our own mess, its for the people who do not know any better.
Do you think its us weekenders who saw the sense in four public works shops, two arenas, pouring millions into a stingy old hospital, increasing the municipal workforce every chance you get.
Wake up with your silly comment, its time to come into the 21st century, we are here and we are not going away. This is my home as much as yours.
Barry (Proud to be a weekender from Calgary)
Anon @8:26
Now that they have taken away the spring clean up from better than half the residents in this community, and implemented a new snow removal policy that has gone from being an 'excellent' service we were all proud of, to now being far from satisfactory, you and the rest of us it seems will be receiving less than nothing for our taxes from now on.
In my opinion, you can thank your former mayor for all his years of mismanaging this municipality, a current mayor whose priorities are not in step with the populace, and a senior management staff who know nothing of this community and what really matters to people living here, with respect to what needs fixing... and what doesn't.
I personally find it both frustrating and scandalous knowing as I do that the so-called savings on our spring cleanup is a small pittance when compared to the servicing costs associated with all our municipal loans and debts that have been rising exponentially over the years, due to a lack of fiscal responsibility and due diligence. Services and programs are cut in order to pay for on-going poor management practises that are not only allowed to continue but rewarded it seems with ever increasing management wages and benefits to boot.
These people in positions of authority making decisions to continually put us deeper and deeper in debt relying on service and program cuts to pay for their incompetence need to be reminded that most “people today might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get”. A lot of us are demanding better because we are tired of working for nothing. Seeing as we are what little we were getting taken away.
Barry,
Kudos to you Barry, very well said!
Sounds like the sophiscated city folk are coming down to show us hillbillies the light.
Put enough of them together and you have yourselfs an Economic Task Force.
Don't kid yourself pal we have some very smart people in the Pass
VERY WELL SAID BARRY!
What an idiotic comment to make (Go back to Calgary and stay there) That's the problem...when someone proves them wrong they don't have an intelligent comment back.
So a 250,000$ house in Calgary has to pay tax at around 1150$/year.I call BS.
And Barry you are right on, and I welcome weekenders and I do hope you retire here.
I really did not think snow removal was that bad or differant than other years.
As for the Spring /fall cleanup, this should have never started and it should end.Clean up your own mess.
John P you must quit looking back and start looking forward because you can not change the past.Yah I know history has a way of repeating itself.
Have a great weekend in paradise.
There are no houses for 250,000 in Calgary. Check the website...the closest is 269,000...Taxes 1400.00.
I have a house in Bellevue...value 125,000. Taxes are 1132.00 a year.
Do not fear we have a new council, led by the frim hand of Mayor Decoux. Everything will get better they did not quite get to the 0% increase this year but given another year you will see the burden on us taxpayers start going down.
I expect that once this task force report comes back you will see all kinds of good things happening here.
By the end of this term we will have every situation that could probably occur within the municipality covered off by the relevant policy.
The days of this community being run like one man's little Kingdom are over.
Mark my words this community will be humming with activity within the next three years.
Which in turn will increase our tax base and reduce our taxes to the point of where they will be the envy of every community in Southern Alberta.
Anne
Anne
Dreams are great, until the time comes where one wakes up.
This community has SOOO much going for it ... scenery, recreation, a generally welcoming attitude to newcomers. Whether we want it or not, we have a large population of weekenders who are happy to spend time here. I was a weekender for 10 years before ditching the city house and retiring here six years ago.
Imagine how many more visitors we could attract if we had a few press releases in Calgary media to keep us in the public consciousness. Our last real estate boom was a consequence of the BridgeCreek advertising blitz.
Could/should we try to attract entertainment to deliver a wonderful evening to visitors after a great day in the backcountry? Wouldn't they love to sit on a patio sipping a brewski on a warm summer evening surrounded by mountain views, music wafting from inside, and hanging baskets of colour. Instead the community looks and feels like something out of the movie "Deliverance".
Anne, you think that the new council and its task force will solve all our problems. There sure was a weak field of candidates running for Mayor! We elected the one who had no platform except to promise that a committee of his buddies from far away would make recommendations about our path to salvation. Meanwhile, my hillbilly neighbours are topping up the trash in their yard for a spring cleanup that isn't coming for their household. I couldn't drive my sedan in my front street for two weeks in March (my 4x4 worked OK). The former mayor has a dozen and a half derelict cars (all licensed!) in his yard and at his curb.
The old-timers who run this town can't get spending under control, let alone efficient, but we will have policies for every eventuality. How about living in the present and grabbing hold of some problems and working them out before we worry about having policy for issues that have not yet escalated into problems.
If we want to attract any industry, (heavy, light or hospitality) we have to make this town both attractive and efficient and no one wants to tackle the issue. Whatever your preference about the spring cleanup, it costs too much and is just a way to plump the pay of casual employees during the slow season. Maybe we could do some parks maintenance instead? Or fix potholes? Or tow away some dead vehicles under the Community Standards Bylaw?
The municipal government is new and inexperienced and WE (not the Task Force) need to tell them what the top priorities are. NO Tax increase ... The town needs a cleanup, but taxpayer shouldn't have to foot the bill ... Streamline fire services ... Demolish the old hospital complex ... Go on, communicate you personal favorite to our council so that they KNOW it!
Dean delivers Municipal news on this blog and most commenters have some beef. OK, we are all glad of the forum! We should stop whining and let council know what we each feel and want and will help with. Otherwise we will get the same old staus quo drivel from our government because they have not developed a collective vision. We elected them ... now we have to keep reminding them that they work for us, not a task force.
The community standards bylaw, states that no more than 15% of your residential lot can be occupied by cars (Lincolns) I would love to measure the ex Mayors yard but I'm sure its over that limit?
Is this council not directing administration to enforce the bylaw???
That is a good question did the bylaw officer back off on the enforcement. Did the CAO or the Council direct him to.
There is still a lot of crap to be cleaned up around town. The former Mayors house is still a mess
I already know of seniors being asked to take non seniors junk for the spring clean up.
this whole thing is being handled poorly.
the municipality should have given more notice of the changes.
Very few streets that don't have seniors on them. If a street as 3 piles on it and only two are supposed to be picked up do you think the third will be left?
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