The town of Altona has mailed out this year's property tax bills and has included an insert to show residents how their tax dollars are being used and where their tax increases are coming from.

The town is responsible for collecting both municipal and school property taxes in the community, but it has no control over education taxes because those levies are set by local school trustees. However, not all taxpayers understand that concept and when they don't like something about the education taxes they're paying, they will often phone the town office instead of speaking to their local school trustee.

"This has been a long running concern for all municipalities and it's not going to go away anytime soon," said Altona CAO, Dan Gagne. "The information in the insert is part of town council's efforts to clarify to local taxpayers that there are two parts to the property tax bill; the municipal taxes and the school taxes."

That lack of understanding about property taxes has at times put town administrators and councillors on the receiving end of some irate phone calls from ratepayers who were upset with their school taxes. The information insert is an attempt to deflect some of those comments to the people who should be answering those calls, local school trustees.

The effort to educate local residents could be considered a calculated move, especially this year, since school property taxes are increasing 12.89 per cent in Border Land School Division compared to a 2.7 per cent increase in town property taxes.

"This particular year the town of Altona has maintained a cost of living approach to increases in taxes, but unfortunately the school division was not in the same position, and had to make a different decision," said Gagne.

Despite reducing their spending by $2.3 million, Border Land trustees raised the school mill rate by almost 2 mills in 2017 in order to keep up with the rising costs of public education. That decision works out to an almost 13 per cent increase in education taxes for this year.

The information insert provides the names and telephone numbers of town council members and school trustees so that ratepayers who have questions or concerns about this year's tax bill, can call the appropriate people.

According to Gagne, town council simply wanted to make sure taxpayers were talking to right people when it comes to their property taxes.