Kentville tax rate going up

BY JENNIFER HOEGG

jhoegg@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Taxes are going up in Kentville. Residents and business owners will pay 5.85 cents more per $100 of assessed property value for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

Residential properties will be taxed at a rate of $1.2902 per $100 of assessed value, up from $1.2317. For a home assessed at $135,000 the increase amounts to approximately $79.

Businesses will pay $3.2266, up from $3.02. Kentville CAO Keith Robicheau noted in an e-mail that 14.5 cents of the business increase is in lieu of the provincial business occupancy tax that is being phased out.

The tax rate and budget were finalized and approved at a special meeting of council July 21. The three-hour meeting was necessary after council unanimously defeated an earlier draft budget at the July 15 regular council session.

Town staff’s original budget proposal was based on a deed transfer tax of 1.5 per cent on home purchases and a two-cent property tax increase, or a seven-cent property tax increase. Council rejected the introduction of a deed transfer tax at that meeting and balked at a seven-cent tax spike.

Some projects will be delayed: Mayor

Mayor Dave Corkum said in a phone interview, “the 5.85 cents is more palatable (to Council) than seven, but if we could have cut it down further we would have. No one wanted to see any tax increase at all.”

Corkum told The Advertiser some projects will be delayed and grants to other organizations trimmed. For example, Annapolis Valley Regional Hospital requested $28,300 from Kentville over five years, but will receive only $17,700 over eight years. “We put some things off,” Corkum said, adding, “I don’t think the public will notice any significant changes.”

In order to avoid a seven-cent increase, expenses were cut across the board, but no town jobs will be lost. “The staff came back with recommendations. All of our departments chipped in to make a few cuts here and there. Certainly there are some sacrifices they are all making. “

The balance is precarious. For instance, Kentville’s snow-clearing budget is set at the average expense for the past five years. “If we have another winter like we had last year then we will be overbudget in our snow removal,” Corkum said.

He added that services enjoyed by Kentville citizens are an excellent value because “even with this increase, Kentville still has the third lowest tax rate of any town in Nova Scotia.”