Tuesday saw 16 Halifax councillors ask last minute questions of municipal staff that would have seen drastic changes to how a $918.5 million budget would operate.
If that sounds frustrating, you weren’t the only one — staff were forced to frantically perform calculations to give councillors the answers they wanted to know.
But by 2:00 p.m., Halifax had set its budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year — defeating a last-minute motion to use $1.9 million of its $12 million surplus to reduce an average household tax increase to the originally predicted 1.6 per cent.
Throughout the day, staff had recommended that council not use surplus to reduce the tax increase.
“Reserves are not meant to fund current operations,” said Halifax’s Chief Administrative Officer Jacques Dube.
The fiscal budget was the second budget in a new multi-year budget format for the municipality.
According to city staff, the strategy allows the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to take advantage of “growth opportunities” and “mitigate forecasted challenges.”
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As passed, the budget reflects an increase of their household tax bill by 1.975 per cent, which translates to an additional $37 for the average household’s tax bill.
Municipal staff say that means the average tax bill for a family home is estimated at $1,917 and the average tax bill for a business will decrease to $40,966.
Councillor Bill Karsten said that he would not have been able to vote for a budget had the tax increase been higher than 1.9 per cent, and said he was happy with how it turned out.
“I urge us to vote for this unanimously,” Karsten said.
However, it wasn’t unanimous. Council voted 15-2 in support of the budget, with councillor Tim Outhit and councillor Sean Cleary voting against it.
Fiscal challenges ahead
That doesn’t mean everything is rosy for the municipality.
In an opening statement, Dube said there are many fiscal challenges ahead — including police wages.
Dube slammed the arbitration decision that set police services wages, calling further wage increases under arbitration to be “unsustainable.”
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According to the budget, $157.9 million of the total $918.5 million budget is part of mandatory provincial fees for things like education.
As a result, total municipal expenditure is actually $760.8 million.
Staff characterized the municipality’s debt, which has dropped by approximately 30 per cent in this budget, as one of the lowest municipal per-capita debts in the country.
Councillor Lindell Smith said that fact should be shouted from the mountaintops.
Council have now directed staff to come back next year with a two-year operating budget that will cover the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 fiscal year.