Council Clips for April 24, 2018
On April 24 Council met as the Finance Committee to hear a report from the Town’s auditor on the 2017 financial statements, to allocate the 2017 surplus and to start talking about 2018 property tax rates.
Consolidated Financial Statements
The Town’s 2017 consolidated financial statements were audited by an external third party, Avail LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants. You can see the statements, as well as statements from previous years, at Budget & Financial Information
2017 Operating Surplus
2017 closed with a $2.7M operating surplus. The surplus is due to unexpected levels of revenue plus additional savings in salaries, wages and benefits, contracted services, telecommunications, and travel and training. Council allocated the surplus to the following reserve accounts:
- $458,000 to the General Municipal Operating Reserve
- $273,000 to the Tax Stabilization Reserve
- $644,050 to the PAH Reserve
- $1,326,175 to the Asset Replacement/Rehabilitation Reserve
2017 Capital Project Summary
Council received their annual report an on those capital projects that were completed in 2017 and those that have been carried forward to 2018 as work in progress (see item D3 in https://canmore.ca/documents/2547-2018-04-24-finance-committee-agenda) and you can also keep up to date with ongoing capital projects at Projects
2018 Property Tax Rate Estimates
The Town collects just enough property taxes to cover operating budget requirements ($23M in 2018, including $725,000 for perpetually affordable housing), the provincial education tax requisition ($18M), and the seniors requisition (almost $1M). To determine the tax rate - or mill rate - administration calculates how much of the total is to be collected from residential and non-residential properties (the split), then divides these amounts by the total assessed value for each property classification. The tax rates resulting from this calculation will be presented to Council for approval at their May 15, 2018 regular meeting. In the meantime, you can learn more about property assessments at Property Assessments
