2025 property taxes in Coaldale will see a 2.85 per cent increase.
The increase was approved as part of the town’s 2025 to 2027 Operating Budget and 2025 to 2029 Capital Budget. According to Town of Coaldale administration, the increase would cost a home community valued at $315,000 an additional $5.27 monthly or $63.24 a year. The increase is part of the additional $972,583 in revenue the municipality needs to find to balance the budget.
According to town officials, the need for additional revenue is caused by a combination of inflation, the recent decision by the provincial government to prohibit photo radar speed enforcement on all provincial highways and restrict its use to school zones, playground zones, and construction zones which the municipality reports is a loss of roughly $400,000 in the revenue.
“Since October 2023, the national inflation rate increased by 2 percent. In Alberta, however, the inflation rate increased by 3 percent, meaning that just as individual Albertans pay 3 per cent more for goods and services today than they did a year ago, so too do their municipal governments,” a release from the statement reads.
Mayor Jack Van Rijn says council understands the province’s decision as “Photo radar should be used for traffic safety purposes only; not revenue generation.”
“That being said, these changes – combined with significant inflationary pressure – meant having to work hard to find areas of savings, as well as some additional revenues, to balance the budget,” Van Rijn says.
