Rural Municipal of Alberta (RMA) president Al Kemmere says going public with their concern over energy sector assessments has helped open doors at Alberta Municipal Affairs.

When the embargo was lifted on the scenarios being examined to change how energy sector property holdings and equipment are assessed, the counties went public with their concerns over what it means to their residents.

In addition, 60 to 70 representatives of rural municipalities staged a demonstration on the steps of the Alberta Legislature to draw attention to the issue.

"The meeting that we have booked right now is in result of us going public with the information once the embargo had been lifted. Once there had been a few voices of concern, and once that demonstration had taken place, then we asked again for the meeting and we get the meeting offered to us by the minister of Municipal Affairs."

RMA says all four scenarios being considered by the province will drastically reduced the assessed value of oil and gas properties, threatening the sustainability of some Alberta counties. According to the association, under the scenario favoured by stakeholders, an average rural municipality would lose 12.4 per cent of their revenues in the first year of implementation, with 11 members losing 20 per cent.

There would also be an impact upon urban municipalities, like Cochrane, points out Kemmere. It would reduce the amount of school taxes paid by counties and residents of urban centres would in turn have to shoulder more of the cost. It would also reduce the contribution of counties to policing and seniors housing.

Kemmere is from Mountain View County, just north of Rocky View County. He says it cover about 65 per cent of the school tax with 34 per cent of the population.

"As you start decreasing our assessment, that's going to have to shift over to the towns more than it does now."

Kemmere says the counties only became included in the discussions in January. At first, three scenarios were being considered and a fourth and more demand one was added afterwards

"Since the four scenarios were presented, RMA has put forward at key principals to determine if its true, and come up solutions that not will fall solely on the back of rural municipalities."

Worse, he says, none of these scenarios are guaranteed to help Albertans..

"None of these scenarios that they';re looking at trying to save money for the oil and gas will identify that that money will be spent in Alberta to stimulate the Alberta economy or jobs. This money could just as easily be taken right out of the province and invested in Texas for all we know."

In a written statement, local MLA Peter Guthrie  a review of the assessment model is well overdue and its intention is to evaluate the fairness and competitiveness of the current model.

“One of the keys to economic recovery for Alberta is to provide an environment that is attractive for investment," states Guthrie.  "Over several years, the oil and gas sector has observed increases in red tape and costs of doing business including a tax regime that has caused bankruptcies and investment to flee the province in droves.  Our government is looking to reverse that trend and expect all levels of government to do their part to allow a competitive environment for all business."

He says the consultation hasn't yet been completed and believes gross exaggerations and threats of massive tax hikes by local leaders don't help advance discussions.

RMA president says this isn't an exaggeration.

"These are their scenarios, and these are their numbers. We're just pushing out the calculations as they show."

Rocky View County Reeve Greg Boehlke warns it could force property tax hikes up to eight per cent and the county would lose hundreds-of-millions of dollars in assessed value of oil and gas properties.

Alberta counties are already wrestling with $173 million in unpaid tax bills from the energy industry last year, and the situation doesn't appear to be improving, says Kemmere.

"Most of my counties are run pretty lean already because they've had a reduce income. So this is going to have to be shifted over on to the residential taxpayer and that's going to mean a significant increases. It's either that or eliminates services, and nobody wants that to have that happen either."

Plus, they are facing higher policing costs with the new structure announced by the province in December.