Education
taxes are not subject to control or review by the City of Lethbridge.
Under Provincial legislation the City is required to administer and
collect the education tax on behalf of the Province for public and
separate school boards.
Each year, the Alberta Government determines the total amount of
revenue that will be required for education purposes through the
property taxation system across the province.
The total assessment of all property in a municipality is used as
the basis to calculate that municipality’s share of the total provincial
amount. Every municipality’s share of the total provincial amount is
called the education property tax requisition. Annually, the Province
sends out these requisitions to all municipalities in the province. The
municipality is then required by Provincial legislation to collect the
revenue required to pay the requisition through the property assessment
and tax system.
Your property assessment is used to calculate your share of the
revenue required to pay the requisition for Lethbridge. This part of
your total property tax bill is collected by the City and sent to the
Alberta Government. This is not additional revenue for the City.
Who pays
All property owners in Lethbridge, residential and non-residential,
are required to pay education property taxes including those without
children in school and senior citizens.
Use of the education tax
The following
information is provided by the Government of Alberta: "Education
property taxes support public and separate school students in grades 1
to 12. Education property taxes are pooled and then distributed to all
Alberta school boards on an equal per-student basis. The majority of
these funds are for instruction, including teacher salaries, textbooks,
and other classroom resources."
For further information, please see Alberta Education Property Tax .