The 2017 Municipality of Bifrost-Riverton's budget been passed by Council.

Reeve Harold Foster says it was designed to meet amalgamation requirements. He says it means taxes in what was formerly the RM of Bifrost will rise 4.7%, and in what was the former Village of Riverton, are dropping 14.1%.

"The government gave until 2019, I believe, to get our tax rates equal," he says, "So there's a significant adjustment this year to meet that deadline. In last year's budget, we didn't make very much of an adjustment at all, and I'm guessing we're about one-third of the way to equalization in this budget."

Foster says despite the increase, Council's satisfied they're making progress toward the 2019 deadline.

"There's a little concern between the rural and urban part of it," he says, "But over-all, I thing we're making headway. I think we're getting some good projects done -- things that needed to be done."

He adds the budget has a number of projects lined up for this year.

"We've started a water study to put water into Riverton," he says, "We're in the early stages of that. We did some street sealing, on hardtop, so that it doesn't deteriorate. We had some problems with the lagoon that have been resolved, and there's just a whole lot of stuff that's happening."

Here's a partial breakdown of the budget.

The former RM of Bifrost on $100,000 assessment: a rural residential property sees an increase of $35.55. A farm property sees an increase of $20.54. The commercial rate rises by $51.35.

The former Village of Riverton on a $100.000 assessment: taxes decrease on residential property by $272.84. For commercial properties, the drop is $394.10.