county taxes?

[cakadu]

Cowman, I find your comments quite interesting some times and at other times confusing. In some posts you blast the county for bad spending decisions and in this thread you state that "To even think it would be business as usual shows a complete lack of understanding county finances! It is a good thing that the councillors we have in there at least understand that!" Which is it?

I don't know where you got your library card, but I went to the school out here and bought a library card for a buck and it gives me access to books anywhere in the province. Out here, we're not getting anywhere near the road maintenance that we should be and haven't been for a good number of years, despite the GIS system in place to monitor the graders etc. We have yet to see the spray trucks out this way, in spite of the fact that they are supposed to be getting out to an area at least once every 3 years.

If the county didn't have all this excess money, would they have been able to build the new county building - which many residents in the county feel was unnecessary and was way over budget.

The subdivision of farm land is still happening to a large extent and it is amazing how the rules get relaxed for some and not for others.

Farmers_son, if the Beverly Hillbillies are indeed running the show, could it be any worse than when the "Drysdales" were running it?

I still say that unless you are involved in all the discussions, see the paper work etc., you can't possibly know all the ins and outs of the discussions that are going on. Even the people that are sharing their thoughts with you are giving you their interpretation of events and quite likely from a biased viewpoint.

No matter what, it is time for some new thinking around the county table.

[lesm]

I was wondering what you were paying in land taxes for a good quarter of productive grain land? Here in north central Saskatchewan we pay about $1300 a year for our best land.

[coppertop]

farmers_son, there are 68 rural municipalities and several hundred towns and villages each with their own governance...not to mention the cities in the province. Rural Alberta has a voice, its called the Association of Municipal Districts and Counties. Now, when you look at the make up of many rural municipalities they have more urbanized residents than they to honest to goodness rural folks.
When the province consults with Albertans regarding amendments to the MGA, the urbans faithfully send in their responses citing growth constraints, supplying of recreational facilities for rural residents without any of the tax revenue etc. Rurals send their responses too, but of course they are outnumbered. I do think we have a Municipal Affairs Minister now, in Ray Danyluk that understands the rural issues,and he also understands urban issues, and will be very fair in dealing with both in any municipal disputes that end up in his office.
As far as annexing land goes, sometimes the urban centre makes all sorts of promises to land owners in fringe areas, getting them onside with an annexation, then they put the head on the rural municipality. OR, the urban municipality will refuse municipal services indicating they do not have capacity to add on more residential and commercial properties. Then, the rural municipality must do a study of the capacity of the urban facilities to prove them wrong. All this costs money.

[cowman]

Linda: I believe it is every ratepayers right to question how the county spends our money? Personally I think they are quite extravagant on several things? That does not in anyway mean that I don't think the councillors in place don't know where the dollars are going and completely understand the consequences of losing over one third of the tax base?
Your own councillor, Lougheed, is not some sort of halfwit who knows nothing? Politics is politics and they all have to play the game...if they want to stay in office?...Probably why he aced the last election?
Yep, you can get books at the local yokel library...you can not get books at the Red Deer library...when you present your "special card"? Try it?
You show an amazing lack of knowledge for someone who says they were on the ag service board? The county since 2003 has sprayed HALF the roads every year and in 2006 they spot sprayed ALL the roads! Despite an accident that took one truck out of commission! Phone your ag fieldman if you don't believe me!
I sometimes find it incredible that people who would aspire to public office have no clue how the system works!

[blackjack]

...coppertop...i was just kidding about the user fee... but i do hear residents of calgary whining they pay the tax and the commuters from the airdries and okotoks get what they call a free ride when using the cities transportation system everyday...good luck to this danyluk fellow...he's goin need it...

[coppertop]

cowman, council members either know where the tax dollars and grant dollars are going, or they must be asleep during the budget deliberations. Most municipalities have half a dozen budget meetings with senior administration prior to passing the interim budget. Then they will finalize the budget and pass the mill rate at that time.

We used to spend days going through the budget of each department line by line, and usually sent department heads back to look for more efficiencies. Any municipal administration hates budget time....usually councillors are doing battle over capital projects, and during an election year it is usually a blood bath. Each councillor wants to look good to his constituents, which means getting some fairly large projects in their division.

I think you are being a bit tough on Linda, unless she is on the ASB she wouldn't know what their spraying policy is unless it is provided in the form of newsletters etc.

This county bought two new spray trucks and are losing the battle with weeds, particularly thistle and tansy in the ditches. The weed inspector sent a note to the neighbours advising them to pull the tansy in their pasture, they were told that it would be dealt with as soon as someone from the county started pulling the stuff in the ditch !!

[cakadu]

Cowman, it has been a couple of years at least since I sat on the ASB and the trucks were just getting going then. If you read my post, I said I haven't seen them out this way and copper is right - they don't exactly advertise when and where they are going to be out spraying.

I may not be able to take my card into the Red Deer Library, but I can order the books through the library out here, which is pretty much the same wouldn't you say? I don't have to drive to Red Deer to get it, I go to the school.

As far as Mr. Lougheed goes, he got in more because the vote was split than for any other reason. Had it been a 2 person race, the outcome may have been very different as evidenced in past elections.

I do believe farmers_son and copper in particular, have mentioned many times that being in public office is a thankless job and that there are many reasons that good people do not stick their necks out.

I will also stand by the fact that I think that there comes a time when there is new blood needed in any organization, government or association. You cannot solve a problem with the mindset that created it (Albert Einstein.)

Thanks for the support copper. I do believe that I have found my niche in life and am enjoying my job immensely.

[coppertop]

Linda, that is the main thing !! I really enjoyed being a farmer rep on the ASB here, then I ran for council and enjoyed the first four years. After that we had a huge division on council over paving local roads, most particularly, paving local roads close to where one councillor owned property. He would encourge groups of people to bring in petitions demanding their road be paved, when it was turned down, there were letters to the local paper that would make your hair curl. Once I was no longer on council he was able to get support toraise councillors honoaria to double, use the municipal reserves and debenture pavement. He and another counicllor went on trips far and wide at the tax dollars expense, and for a year and a half they really lived the high life. His big mistake, and he had the help of two others on council, was to cancel a long standing project that had worked its way to the top of the list, and include two roads in the budget for paving, that were not on the list, had not be rebuilt and happened to be adjacent to land he owned and land another councillor owned.
The public petitioned the minister for a complete review of council and governance practices and the consultant who performed the review was very scathing in his opinion of the actions of two council members. The Minister ordered that the road projects be cancelled, and two of equal cost that had a higher priority be done with the funds budgetted. This left one road a muddy mess all year, and the residents who had voted for their councillor on the promise of pavement past their door, had MUD instead.The Minister also ordered that the county take court action against the two members of council for acting in pecuniary interest. As far as we know this is the first time a Minister has had to direct that action be taken.

I watched all this from a safe distance, and was heartbroken to see what was happening to this community. It was written about in various large newspapers, on the radio etc.

The election in 2004 cleaned house, and the new council had a mess to clean up, reserves depleted to the point where the county would need to borrow for operating costs etc. They have done an excellent job getting their fiscal house in order, but many of them won't be back next year so who knows what sort of group we will have.

The most important thing in life is to enjoy what a person is doing, whether its out feeding critters or sitting in the board room.

[cowman]

Well I don't think I ever said it was an easy job? And anyone who takes a crack at it should be commended.
I might not agree with some of the things they do but I don't question their committment!
Even our former reeve who was a very contoversial guy? He was giving up his time and without a doubt going through a lot of stress because he believed in what he was doing?
Incidently I saw him in Red Deer a few weeks back and he said he is thinking about taking a run at the elected reeves spot! He has been busy in Arizona working on some land developement.
Linda: I'm not completely sure how your division was split up in realignment? I think basically division 6 and 5 are combined...or a good portion of each? I would think this would put Bell and Lougheed running in the same division? How do you see that playing out? Bell is pretty strong in his area...and I think a pretty decent councillor? Lougheed has had a few mistakes...in my opinion! He opposed the elected reeve at large issue...even though the people voted for it? I don't think that was smart? He doesn't seem to listen to his constituents !
I think Lougheed is fairly tightfisted(a good thing), where Bell is more open when it comes to spending money.

[cakadu]

Cowman, my understanding is that his division is gone - absorbed into divisions 6 and 4. Based on that, I think you can see why he has so vehemently opposed the elected reeve issue.