High River taxpayers will see an average 2.2 per cent hike in their municipal tax bill this year.

That means an average of about $68 more per household although some properties will see a bigger increase and some smaller.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says the Town's not immune to inflation.

"The increase in the budget comes from the increase in operational expenses, whether it's utilities bills or electricity and everything else that's gone up, fuel for our operations department, all these things that nobody's unaware of the cost increases that we've seen over the last year," he says.

For us to be able to continue to provide the level of service that's expected in our town and what we want to provide we need the revenue to do so."

He says council was originally looking at a 4.5 per cent hike but they were able to use the Tax Stabilization Fund, set up last year to cushion the blow.

The Fund is made up of money saved during the pandemic along with grants the Town's received.

Snodgrass cautions the fund won't be there forever, but they should have five or six more years of use they can get out of it.

On the Capital budget side, the mayor says most of it is projects that are being carried over from last year with the only big-ticket item being the design work on the aquatic centre.