CORRECTION: In the video it states that four councillors voted against the budget, but it was in fact 5 councillors who voted against the budget.
Watch above: Residents and businesses in Halifax will be paying more on their tax bill this year. Marieke Walsh reports.
HALIFAX – The latest draft budget for Halifax proposes a residential tax hike and a commercial tax cut, but in both cases home and business owners would find themselves paying more.
At the Committee of the Whole meeting today councillors will debate the latest budget proposal reflecting recent council decisions to hire more firefighters and set up a savings fund for the capital budget. The two new items mean instead of getting a residential tax cut, homeowners will now see a 3.2 per cent rate increase, said Bruce Fisher, Manager of Financial Policy and Planning for the city.
The residential tax hike means for the average $225,000 house in the municipality, the homeowner would pay an additional $57.00, said Fisher.
The 3.2 per cent increase means a 1.1 cent rate hike on residential taxes. The lions share of that hike will go to a new savings fund for upcoming strategic capital projects, requested by Regional Council in March, said Spokesperson Tiffany Chase.
“Both commercial and residential taxpayers will see an increase in the average tax bill,” said Fisher.
“The commercial rate is declining 4.5 cents however there’s substantial increases in commercial assessment and the average commercial tax bill will rise by $900.”
Despite the changes, Dartmouth Centre Councillor Gloria McCluskey said on the whole she thinks it’s a good budget. “Several years I voted against the budget, because I wasn’t happy that we’d considered enough changes. But I feel pretty good about this budget, so I’ll have a lot of questions, but I’ll probably end up supporting the budget.”
Halifax Cycling Coalition sees “a lot of positives”
The newest budget proposal sets aside $175,000 for the installation of a bike lane along Hollis Street, Cycling Coalition Board Member Eric Jonsson said he hopes to see the lane installed before the start of summer.
The new bike lane will help build a cycling “network” on the peninsula said Jonsson. “Lower Water is the one-way street going north, and the one on Hollis is the one-way street going south,” he said.
“It’s part of a network, you can’t just have random bike lanes wherever they want to put them, they need to be connected, and they need to give people options for not just going one direction, but for going and coming.”
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