In the March 25, 2014 edition of the Edmonton
Journal, David Staples wrote about MLA Laurie Blakeman and her plan for
re-distribution of municipal linear taxation (pipelines, etc.) in Alberta.
Blakeman’s Bill on
this issue was introduced in the Alberta Legislature this spring, but was not
supported.
According to Staples,
in 2012 rural municipalities (Counties & Municipal Districts) received $1.53
Billion of the $1.6 Billion in linear taxation collected. Blakeman’s plan would be to claw all of this
back and re-distribute the money on a per capita basis (population).
Broken down by
numbers, a re-distribution using Blakeman’s formula would look approximately
like this –
Edmonton Region - $400,000,000+
Calgary Region - $480,000,000+
Flagstaff Region - $3,400,000
Town of Killam - $400,000
In contrast, for 2012
Flagstaff County collected $11,730,000 in linear taxes – about 55% of their
property tax revenue (based on $621,000,000 in linear assessment – 47% of the
total assessment).
Blakeman’s plan would
see the majority of this $1.6 Billion re-allocated to just two regions,
effectively funneling a huge amount of money away from rural Alberta every
year.
While others may
think differently, my thought has always been that a ‘Made in Flagstaff’
solution would be much better for our region as a whole. This can be accomplished either by cost
sharing or by revenue sharing on the part of Flagstaff.
We have had some
reasonable success on the cost sharing side – our regional Fire Services
Agreement and Flagstaff County’s Recreation Funding Policy have worked to support the
towns & villages in their delivery of these services to Flagstaff residents –
and we will continue to work on improvements in these areas.
There is more work to
be done on the cost sharing side, and we really haven’t had the conversation
yet regarding revenue sharing.
The numbers show we
can be better off as a region. In order
to do so, we need to think in terms of the region as a whole, and suppress that
desire to compartmentalize and be turf-protectors.
All of us.
Cheers,
Bud James
