Lac La Biche County councillors have given themselves a 14 per cent pay raise after losing the long-standing ability to protect one-third of their municipal paycheques from the tax man.
Based on the recently completed 2019 municipal budget planning, the increase would total $95,000 for all nine elected member of council, or about seven thousand dollars for each councillor and approximately $10,000 for the mayor.
The decision to up the pay rates comes as the federal government scraps the one-third tax exemption perk for municipal councillors and school board trustees that was in the 70-year-old Federal Income Tax Act.
The original intent of the tax exemption was to cover incidental expenses for elected officials. Although the law has remained in effect, most municipal councillors are reimbursed for expenses while still getting the tax break.
In 2000 the tax exemption was removed from federal politicians’ salaries, and in 2012, Alberta’s Legislature scrapped the tax break for MLAs.
'Not outrageous'
At their recent council meeting where the pay hike was decided, councillor Jason Stedman was in favour of the 14 per cent hike, saying the increase is simply to keep councils’ pay at the same level.
“This is what we would have had,” he said. “... this is to bring our pay back up. I don’t think what we are asking for is outrageous.”
Councillor Colin Cote agreed. He said the workload is the same, but without the tax concession on his base pay of $28,091 per year, he would lose more than $6,500 in gross income.
“This is correcting a taxation issue ... I personally am not prepared to take a cut in pay due to a taxation issue,” he said, criticizing the federal government for “grabbing low hanging fruit,” by closing the tax loophole.
Not all councillors were immediately in favour of the hike. Some preferred to wait until wage comparisons with other municipalities were examined.
With the federal changes coming into effect on January 1, council voted on the hike. The motion passed, with the mayor and councillors Charlyn Moore, Sterling Johnson and George L’Heureux not in favour.
