This morning I received two questions from a resident of Crossfield.  His queries are likely not exclusive to him and so I would like to share the answers with all.

The Question:

The Answers:

Regarding the street sweeping.  It is far less expensive to hire a private sector contractor than to try and own a street sweeper.  Our old sweeper has literally bit the dust and a new one is $200,000 – $250,000.  You can buy a used one, however they are not cheap either.  It costs tax payers $15,000/year to hire private and this includes all fuel, maintenance etc.  When you look at the numbers it becomes clear why we hire a contractor.  We do not sweep enough streets to justify owning a $200,000+ piece of equipment.  These units need to sweep 10 times the number of streets that Crossfield has to be justified.

Following is my answer to your tax question.  Last year the average tax bill increased by 1.5%, which was the rate of inflation.  As you know we can only control the mill rate, we have no control over individual assessments.  This means that some folks will see less increases/decreases than others; however the average is an inflation increase of 1.5%.  If we don`t account for inflation then we will find that over a few years the Town will no longer be able to maintain infrastructure and basic services because our relative purchasing power will be diminished.

The news is not as good this year.  The Provincial Government has decided to hit municipalities with approximately a 10.68% increase on the school requisition portion of our property taxes.  As you know, we have no say on this increase.  It`s like GST, we have to collect it and then pass it all on to the Province, none of these funds stay in the Town.  This portion makes up about 40% of your tax bill.  In other words 40% of your tax bill is out of our control.  This year you will see the Towns 60% portion of your tax bill change on average (will vary because of assessments) by inflation only, which is 2.9%.  You will see the Province`s portion, which is 40% of your tax bill, increase by an average of 10.68%.

To summarize, if you feel that a change in taxes by only the rate of inflation is justified, then we are on the same page.  If you think that taxes should be frozen and not adjusted for inflation, then I have to disagree with you on that point because this approach would make our community unsustainable.  The third key point is that a little more than 40% of your tax bill is out of your Towns control and is being increased by more than 3 times the rate of inflation.  I would ask that you and other concerned citizens call our MLA, the office of Municipal affairs and the Premiers office to voice your concerns.  We were told that there was going to be no new taxes but that`s not the reality.  The Provincial portion of property taxes are seeing a significant increase this year.

PS.  It`s important that you call the Town`s assessor if you feel your tax assessment is too high before June 1, 2012.

Thanks for the questions,  Nathan.

Contacts:

MLA Constituency Office
#3, 4530 – 49 Avenue
Olds, AB
Canada T4H 1A4
Phone: (403) 556-3132
Fax: (403) 556-3120
oldsdidsbury.threehills@assembly.ab.ca

Minister Doug Griffiths, Alberta Municipal Affairs
Communications Branch
18th floor, Commerce Place
10155-102 Street
Edmonton, AB
T5J 4L4
Canada

Phone: 780-427-2732
Dial 310-0000 for toll-free connection
Fax: 780-422-1419

The department’s hours of operation are: 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Premier Alison Redford`s office

Calling long-distance in Alberta: dial 310-0000,  or 780 427-2251
307 Legislature Bldg
10800 – 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada
T5K 2B7

http://www.calgaryherald.com/columnists/McGowan+words+politicians+utter+royalties+upgrading/6405754/story.html

Didn’t we just go through a Royalty adjustment that shipped thousands of jobs and billions of dollars out of our province?  How is deferred payouts to Albertans the same as free bitumen?  It costs $50.00 per barrel to get the bitumen out of the ground(not free).  That is real money up front.  If the Royalty framework needs tweaking then it needs to be done in a thoughtful non-political way.  During an election is not the time to throw our economy onto the precipice of political whims.  The other thing that this author seems to be forgetting is the principle of specialization.  If I produce cheese, it does not automatically stand to reason that I should also sell Pizzas.  I specialize in producing cheese, not selling Pizzas.  Our economy is built on specialization which leads to unprecedented efficiencies, in other words higher standards of living than ever before in human history.  Houston is not a ‘bad’ place.  There is nothing wrong with companies in Alberta focussing their effort on bitumen extraction and shipping rather than trying to upgrade it as well.  The investment in upgrading would lead to a distortion in the production side of the business leading to a mean shrinkage of the Alberta economic pie.  It’s a misconstrued understanding of macroeconomics.  The only way oil companies would be able to make upgrading feasible  would be for the Province to provide massive subsidies (Does Alta Link ring a bell).  Even if the Provincial government kept ownership of the refineries, we would still lose, as I don’t ever remember a successful Crown corporation working in our western capitalist economy.  Nothing good comes from Government being in business.  If upgrading bitumen in Alberta made economic sense, then the private sector would have already started doing it.  The solution to the Royalty debate in my mind is really simple.  We must first remember that the so called ‘greedy’ oil companies are owned by shareholders, it’s not like there is one fat pig at the top eating our billions.  It’s actually the shareholders that benefit from the dividends produced by these companies.  If Albertans want a piece of the action then they can buy shares in any one of the oil sand companies with the click of a mouse.  If Albertans think that the Provincial government needs to get us ‘our fair share’ then they can restore the heritage trust fund that was decimated by the PC’s and invest that massive fund into purchasing stock in the best blue chip oil sand companies in our province (keep in mind the Provincial government shouldn’t own more than 50% of the shares in any particular company, or they then cross into crown corporation territory).  They can then send Albertans dividend checks as shareholders or continue to pad the heritage trust fund.  Economies are not rocket science, yet politicians like to make it so.  There is no better way to extract bitumen than through private companies and if folks don’t feel we’re getting our fair share then it’s time to buy our shares in these private enterprises.  This is the only proven method to grow the economy and provide a bigger pie for all who are willing to work rather than play arm chair philosopher.

Mayor Nathan Anderson

Town of Crossfield

We have had 3 alleged abduction attempts in Crossfield since the beginning of my time on council.  This issue weighs heavy on our council and we will be taking action.

133-2012 MOVED by Mayor Anderson that Administration invite representatives from the Airdrie RCMP, the schools, parent councils and church organizations in the community to attend a meeting within the next two weeks to share with us best practices and ideas to protect the community of Crossfield from child predators.                              CARRIED

We will be taking the advice we receive in this meeting very seriously and implementing measures to protect our precious children.

Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk says he met with parents who are “against human rights.” He may have thought he was being facetious, however the parents who are concerned about what is being imposed upon their kids didn’t find him humorous.  The whole event resulted in an uproar of the twitterverse.  The part that really confuses me is why?  Why does the government insist on downloading the already frowned upon views of the so called human rights court (also known as our very own kangaroo court) onto Alberta parents.  Who is asking for them to do this?  Why can’t they just let parents be parents and turn their focus towards reducing government’s burden on society?  Isn’t there a record spending problem in Alberta? Maybe they should take a look at that instead of dreaming up big government schemes to impose into our lives.

http://www.auma.ca/live/AUMA/Local_Matters#IntheMedia

Check out the Alberta Urban Municipality Associations website.  They are taking a fearless and commendable stance on behalf of Municipalities and Albertans.