Only one-third of the businesses within the MD of Bonnyville eligible for the new small business sub tax class have submitted their declaration, which is a concern for the municipality.
This is why council agreed to hold off on passing their 2018 mill rate until later this month, in order to give business owners an opportunity to get their forms in.
"We're encouraging any business that has less than 50 employees who are being taxed on a non-residential rate, to get into the office and get in that application. You get 10 per cent off of your taxes. It's really as simple as that," expressed MD Reeve Greg Sawchuk.
According to director of finance and administration for the MD, Michael Trabysh, only 87 businesses have submitted their confirmations, however, 265 are eligible.
In order to qualify, a business must be within the MD of Bonnyville, and consist of less than 50 employees.
They're hoping more businesses will take the time to submit their declarations before they pass the mill rate on April 25.
If council passed the mill rate before all of the statements are submitted, they would have local business owners coming in with their tax notices wondering why they weren't included in the small business sub class.
By waiting a few extra weeks, they're giving them that much more time to get their submission in.
"We would like to be as friendly as possible to small businesses in the community," Trabysh said.
More on the budget
The MD has postponed passing the mill rate, and won't be approving it, or the final budget, until the end of April.
However, Trabysh gave council an update on their school and seniors' lodging requisitions for this year, and how they compare to 2017.
According to Trabysh, both public and Catholic school requisitions have decreased.
This year, the MD will see about $12.5-million in public school requisitions, with Catholic coming in around $703,000, a decrease of $34,000 from the previous year. For public schools, their requisition has dropped $918,000.
On the rise are seniors' lodging requisitions, which saw an overall increase of around $960 since last year, coming in at over $492,000 for 2018.
"Last year, everyone's residential assessment dropped, but school taxes went up... This year, assuming there are no changes, if your house stays the same you will actually see a decrease, because the school taxes have gone down" explained CAO Chris Cambridge.
These numbers were some of the last "building blocks" the MD needed before finalizing the budget, Trabysh said.
On April 11, council will be presented with the final budget, to be passed the following meeting.
