Halifax explores lessening property tax hike
Halifax Regional Municipality councillors are looking to halve a proposed property tax hike.
At Friday’s budget committee, councillor Tony Mancini said he believes an eight per cent hike to average property tax bills is too high of a starting point.
Instead, Mancini brought forward a motion to have city staff look to build a budget based on a four per cent increase.
"We may end up at five or six [per cent]. We may end up lower or if we’re prepared to change services or reduce services we may even get below that four per cent," he said.
Halifax staff maintain that an eight per cent jump is necessary to sustain city operations without impacting services.
If approved by regional council, the average residential property bill would go up $173 each year for homeowners and $3,955 for businesses.
Halifax's Chief Financial Officer Jerry Blackwood outlined possible paths to get to a less than eight per cent increase.
They include reallocating some, or all, of the $20 million set aside for a stadium, as well as taking the $2 million reserved for the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Cuts to operations - such as road paving - are also being discussed.
Blackwood noted that $31 million needs to be saved in order to reduce the increase to four per cent, but he also warned even at a six per cent average property tax bill hike, taxes would have to rise next year to at least seven per cent.
"The decisions you make with this budget. I cannot stress how they will impact future budgets," Blackwood said.
Councillor Paul Russell, who also chairs the Budget Committee, wants to limit tax increases and notes he believes the 4.6 per cent hike from last year was too high.
"Nobody wants an increase of four per cent of their taxes. We know that it’s going to be tough," he said. "But I think this is the road we’re going to have to head down."
Russell added the pending carbon tax gives rebates to consumers but not municipalities.
While a four per cent hike is a starting point it may not be where the proposal ends.
"We might have to cut services, we might have to cut some programs. We might have to not do some things that we had hoped to do," Russell said.
Over the next five months, each business unit will be assessed for its costs and wants—all to be added to a shopping list that will be considered by the city.
"We’ll look at that list at the end and bring that into the budget and that would form the final tax rate which we won’t really know until the end of March, the beginning of April," Russell said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
He didn't trust police but sought their help anyway. Two days later, he was dead
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
Fluid in eye cells can 'boil' if you watch the eclipse without protection: expert
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
NEW More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
Do these exercises for core strength if you can't stomach doing planks
Planks are one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your midsection, as they target all of your major core muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, external obliques and internal obliques. Yet despite the popularity of various 10-minute plank challenges, planking is actually one of the most dreaded core exercises, according to many fitness experts.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Angst and calls for resting places as Surrey, B.C., pet cemetery development continues
A single headstone is all that remains of dozens of markers for long-buried pets in a subdivision in Surrey’s Newton neighbourhood, where a half-acre parcel bears a large sign announcing the proposed construction of new homes.
Polar ice is melting and changing Earth's rotation. It's messing with time itself
One day in the next couple of years, everyone in the world will lose a second of their time. Exactly when that will happen is being influenced by humans, according to a new study, as melting polar ice alters the Earth’s rotation and changes time itself.