Fort Smith council approves 6.5% increase in property tax for 2025

Fort Smith’s town council has approved a 6.5-percent increase in property tax for 2025 “to ensure fiscal sustainability.”

At a meeting this week, most councillors voted in favour of the increase as the town agreed its yearly operational budget.

Councillor Patricia Heaton was the lone opposing vote.

While he couldn’t “fully agree” with the necessity of such a tax increase, councillor Mike Couvrette said Fort Smith needed to improve its asset management.

“We’re just doing too much risk management on our current assets, and it’s going to come back and bite us in the butt,” he said.

“I know the public may be somewhat disappointed that we weren’t able to bring it lower, but I will be voting in favour of it.”

Councillor Karl Cox said he agreed with the tax increase because the town had a “lot of catching up with inflation” to do.

He suggested council consider aiming for a property tax increase of more like one or two percent next year.

Fort Smith usually has its annual operations and maintenance budget ready by December 31 of the prior year. This time, the town had requested the deadline be pushed until the end of February.

During a meeting on January 7, council had a brief discussion of budget priorities in which some councillors recommended public consultations prior to moving forward with a big tax increase, so the introduced changes would be more palatable.

Heaton inquired about the possibility of seeking input from residents on the budget.

Senior administrator Tracy Thomas replied that information was shared through presentations and document packages, and she had not previously solicited public input on budget discussions. She said the town, already faced with a “fairly restricted” budget, did not have space for it either.

“What services are we going to have to impact be able to bring it down to a more acceptable rate?” Couvrette asked at the time.

“If [residents are] not really happy about paying five percent more in taxes, then we have to have that conversation. What services can we start looking at rolling back?”

Jim Hood, interim director of corporate services for the town, said while he felt public consultations were important, the timeline to finalize the operational budget was inching closer.

“With the timelines that we have and the number of new councillors that we have around the table, perhaps this process should be a learning experience and a simplified process,” he said.

“Then, as you move into your second budget, you can make those decisions. You can engage with the public, you can do all those things where you can have a real impact on the community and on that budget, and also the capital budget at the same time.”