Earlier this week, Council approved a two per cent infrastructure reinvestment levy that will be on residents' 2015 property-tax bills.

Chief financial officer for the Town, Tom Maier, says this levy it to make sure the Town has funding in place to maintain and replace deteriorating infrastructure.

"As our infrastructure ages, we need to replace it," he says. "And the dollars going into the reserve from this this two per cent levy, will be used exclusively for those sorts of things, so it won't be used for new projects, new facilities or new infrastructure."

He says having these reserve funds in place will help ease how much money the Town has to borrow from the Province.

"When you borrow for the future, you're just passing that cost onto future generations and future taxpayers who have to pay that down," he says. "And then that limits what they're able to do in the future. So borrowing isn't always an option."

Maier has worked in government jobs for 20 years now, and says the government isn't always quick to whip out its chequebook.

"No magical pot of money is going to pop up on our doorstep, so we have to find financial solutions locally," he says.

He says the infrastructure levy is part of the Town's plan to build up its reserve funds so High River can have a more sustainable future.

"We're just insuring that we have a healthy, sustainable town that people want to live in and we don't have run-down infrastructure, buildings and facilities because that's what the community expects," he says. "And for people who want to move here, those are the kinds of things they expect too."

The two per cent infrastructure levy is part of the 4.5 per cent property-tax increase for residential properties and 6.7 per cent increase for commercial properties.