Piney will not raise mill rate for 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2025 (313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RM of Piney will not see much of a change for taxes as it released its financial plan this week with the mill rate remaining the same at 12.09 mills.

“We try to keep our mill rate stable in this area and this budget reflects that and the budget is higher than last year due to increased assessment…pressures on inflation and increased costs we were able to keep the mill rate the same,” said Reeve Wayne Anderson.

This means that a home assessed at $300,000 can expect to pay $3,627 a year in property taxes at the current mill rate.

The operating budget for 2025 is $3.76 million with funds coming from tax revenue ($1.9 million) largely from property taxes and other revenue ($1.8 million).

About 32 percent of the budget ($1.17 million) will go to transportation for roads, culverts, CNR crossings, among other roadway expenses. It’s an increase from last year’s budget of $1.04 million.

About 23 percent of the budget ($1.3 million) will be spent on capital projects namely a new tanker for the fire department ($680,000); street paving ($150,000); economic development ($262,000) primarily for the Woodridge and Sandilands sub-divisions; and environmental health ($112,500) for additional recycling bins.

About 19 percent of the budget will go towards government services ($701,677) for staffing, legal services, audits, insurance, government relations, among other related government expenses. It’s a slight increase from last year’s $670,316 budget.

Protective services saw its budget increase from last year’s amount of $236,972 to $275,700 this year.

Environmental health services which covers garbage collection, lagoon expenses, and recycling will have a budget of $264,000 in 2025, only slightly higher than last year’s $258,657 budget.

Environmental development services will have a budget of $45,500, which is slightly down from 2024’s budget of $54,121. This budget covers planning and zoning, general land assembly, community development, and beautification and land rehabilitation.

Expenditures for economic development in 2025 will hit $150,000 and will pay for rural area weed control, shared vet services, water resources, conservation, business development, and tourism.

Recreation cultural services will have a budget of $204,000 for 2025, which will pay for community centers and halls, community grant program, and community events.

Public health and welfare services, which pays for community services and social assistance, will have budget of $23,960.