Neat to Know: March 13, 2024

Please enjoy this week's edition of Neat to Know, a roundup of City news, updates, and other important information. You can expect to see the week's most interesting content and even some that may have not been delivered through our regular channels. 

Is Medicine Hat the strongest town? Vote!

Medicine Hat is competing with 15 other North American cities in the 9th Annual Strongest Town Contest. Vote before 11 a.m. Thursday, March 14 to support our journey to the next round! This week, we're up against New Ulm, Minnesota. 

Cast your vote 

Community Well-Being Plan

Folks, we know we've got a lot of surveys and plans on the go. Transportation Master Plan, Community Well-being Plan, plus open houses for new substations, re-routed transmission lines, and upgraded utility projects - it can all be overwhelming! But it is important to us that you are involved in shaping your city. We just have a lot on the go right now!

Today, let's chat about some of the confusion among different surveys currently open in our community, specifically questioning the difference between the following three surveys. Here's the difference:

• The 2022 Community Survey was a statistically-representative, scientific survey to determine the community's level of satisfaction o a variety of City services. It was conducted by Ipsos, a third-party statistics and research body, on behalf of the City, and will occur periodically to continue to benchmark our performance. Read the results.
• The Community Well-Being Plan aims to outline our community's top goals and priorities around health and well-being for the next 5-10 years. The City is responsible for this project and the strategic approach to address those areas of focus. Take the online survey.
• The Your Voice Matters public survey is conducted by Medicine Hat Community Housing Society is specific to those experiencing homelessness or housing instability to gauge the service they receive from the MHCHS.

Please continue to voice your thoughts any time you get a chance. You never know who might come up with that next big idea! We hope it's you.

Enter to win! #DifferentKindofEnergy

Ours is a community that is built differently. Brick by brick, we've crafted a place where ingenuity grows, good ideas thrive, and people prosper. What do you think makes Medicine Hat unique? Share your story at medicinehat.ca/DifferentKindofEnergy for a chance to win a made-local prize package worth $1,500.

Share your story    Watch the video: Built Differently

Fire and Emergency Services: 2023 Year in Review

Don't be alarmed! (See what we did there.) Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services responded to 4,425 incidents in 2023 - 2,479 of which were emergencies. (Other non-emergency incidents could include inspections, educational events, investigations, etc.)

They recently presented their 2023 Year in Review to the Public Services Committee. Since the document hasn't yet been received by Council, we'll give you a sneak peak through the Public Services agenda at the link below. You'll find it on page 8.

Read the Year in Review

Tax revenue vs. tax rate

Hey community! Property taxes can get a bit complex. So, if you're in for a bit of a read, get comfortable, grab a cup of hot tea, and dive in to learn about the difference between tax revenue and tax rate.

When the City budgets are approved, they include a certain amount of revenue that must be collected from property taxes to meet the expenses of providing local services. 

In 2023, the municipal tax revenue required to provide municipal services was $85.3 million. In 2024, that amount increases to $89.5 million. So, the tax revenue increase required is roughly 5%. That is the number used when you hear "Council approved a 5% property tax increase."

It is worth noting that the 2024 increase was planned and passed back in 2022 when the 2023-2024 budget was presented.

For 2024, we expect that increase to be broken down as follows:

• 4% from a tax increase on existing properties
• 1% from assessment growth (new homes and businesses and overall increase in assessment value of existing properties)

Now - here's the kicker! This does not automatically mean that your individual property taxes automatically increase by 4%. Properties are divided into various assessment classes that are set by City Council. In 2023, the assessment classes were:

• Single Family Residential (your typical house)
• Multi-Family Residential (apartments or condos)
• Non-Residential (businesses, hotels, etc.)
• Farm Land

Council can choose to distribute the total required tax revenue differently across each class, taking into account the number of properties and assessed value of those properties in each class. To do this, they set tax rates (or mill rates).

For example, the table below shows that non-residential properties are taxed at 2.38 times more than residential properties in 2023. Furthermore, the tax rates for Residential, Multi-Family and Farm Land actually decreased year over year, even though there was an overall tax increase (required tax revenue).

Using this table as reference, and a house with an assessed value of $300,000, that property's municipal tax share would have been $2,043.24 (300,000 x 0.0068108) in 2024. In 2023, assuming the assessed value remained the same, that property's municipal tax share would have been $2,002.32 (300,000 x 0.0066744), a decrease of 2% (the same percentage decrease between the tax rates 6.8108 to 6.6744). 

So, you can see that there is a marked difference between tax revenue and tax rates.

Whew! You made it! If you still want more - click the link below.

Just one more thing: City Council is expected to give first reading of the Tax Bylaw in April to set the tax rates for 2024.

Understanding taxes

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