The typical property owner in Okotoks will now see an increase of about $113 on their property taxes this year.

This comes after the provincial government released their educational funding assessment for 2017 and has resulted in a dramatic impact on municipalities' taxes from costs recovered for the provincial government to pay for education.

Tanya Thorn, town councillor, says this changes the work the Town did to try to keep property taxes low this year with the original 1.6% increase.

"We're doing a really good job trying to recognize the climate we're in and do the best we can, where as what's happening with education requisition they're not addressing the issues on it and there's no rhyme or reason to how that funding formula works so there's no ability for us as municipalities to predict 'what will we need to give?'," she says. "The increase that's been happening in education requisition over the last five years is substantial."

The educational funding assessment means Okotoks' overall share of the funding is increasing from $12.5 million last year to $13.7 million this year.

Thorn says the Town had their budget for this year set up in December and this increase now means changes will have to be made to it.

"As a municipality we have the ability to take and have a look at it but the only place on the bill that we can make a change is the municipal tax portion so it means if we want to try and mitigate the impacts of this education requisition we've got to change our municipal portion which means again as a municipality we're not investing in the day to day services that our residents use, and that to me is a problem."

Thorn adds she feels the accountability and transparency on the increase is wrong and the Town is a being used as a tax collection agency for another level of government.