Practice area 03
Advising on the policy and revenue side that underwrites the whole picture — distribution, rates, cost recovery, and fairness.
What this covers
Property tax and revenue policy is where a community's priorities meet its ability to pay for them. Meridian advises on tax distribution across property classes, rate-setting, and the harder revenue calls — like which charges should be classified as user fees, cost recovery, or behaviour-deterring regulatory charges, and which belong on the general tax roll.
This work is deliberately grounded in the operational and political realities of a real budget cycle, not textbook theory — including where good practice runs into practical constraints a council actually faces.
What it produces
Tax and revenue policy sets the ceiling on what a budget can actually fund. It has to be worked out alongside — not after — the choices made in Budgeting, or the two end up in tension at the council table.
From the toolkit
Short walkthroughs of the templates and models Meridian builds with clients — illustrated with a fictional Alberta city, City of Larkspur.