FALL RIVER: The Halifax Regional Municipality budget is one that is fair for everyone, regardless of where they live, said the local councillor.
District 2 councillor Barry Dalrymple said taxes decreased for the majority of people he represents in Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank, despite them going up in suburban areas.
HRM regional council passed the operating budget of about $726.3 million with a capital budget of $157.2 million by a 17-7 vote following debate on May 25.
The budget called for a general tax increase of 0.6 per cent. However, that will be offset by a reduction in the amount of money HRM owes the province. Dalrymple said the provincial government has approved the fair and equitable funding principles from the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities that will see a 20 per cent decrease in what HRM pays the province. That total comes to about 1.5 per cent of homeowners’ bills.
Other tax increases in the budget include the local transit rate, which will rise 1.7 percent or $31 on homes that are capped at $180,200. The regional transit rate will rise 0.6 per cent or $11. District 2 will only be impacted by the regional transit rate as the majority of the area isn’t near a local transit route.
Dalrymple explained those increases will be offset by the provincial area rate, which will decrease 1.6 per cent, or $29, and the supplementary education rate which falls 0.5 per cent, or $9. Residents in Waverley and Windsor Junction, some of which do have city water, will face a 1.2 per cent increase, or $22, in the tax rate for hydrants.
“I think our finance department did an incredible job with what they were faced with in the last number of months,” Dalrymple said. “To get that provincial surprise (the HST increase) I think they did a fabulous job. At the end of the day for what we have and the $35 million gap we had, to come out of this at revenue neutral for this district is absolutely huge.”
There’s more good news too, Dalrymple said.
“While there were service cuts in much of HRM, that will not significantly impact this area,” he added. “It’s a little bit of service cuts in the city where, trust me they have plenty of services that can be cut.”
Dalrymple said the district did lose a recreation position at the Fall River-based Gordon R. Snow Community Centre, but that was something they predicted with the implementation of a volunteer board to oversee operations at the centre.
“All of our projects, big and small, for this district over the next year or two, like the small parks, the big ballfield, the Beaver Bank Commons: we have not lost a cent out of any of those,” he explained. “To me the services lost, like cemetery maintenance which has only ever been a city thing anyways, is about taxation fairness. It’s a little bit of service cuts in the city where, trust me they have plenty of services that can be cut.”
Dalrymple was among the councillors who voted for the budget.
“This is a very good budget for the rural districts,” he said.
Fellow councillors have called for a better procedure. They say receiving the two books of budget documents on a Tuesday and beginning debate three days later, didn’t allow them enough time to look over everything. Dalrymple dismissed those calls.
“I did feel there was sufficient time,” he said. “The reason I say this is because this problem didn’t occur last week. We knew about this months ago, so I guess I would say to those councillors is, ‘Where have you been for the last four or five months?’ I’ve been talking to our various departments for many months. There shouldn’t have been any great surprises opening that book.”
HRM held two days of open houses immediately after receiving the documents to meet with the different departments and ask questions.
“I can tell you I was there both days and there were an awful lot of councillors who weren’t,” he said. “To walk in Friday and say ‘We needed more time,’ I don’t buy it. I knew walking in that I was going to support this budget as proposed.”
He wouldn’t divulge names of the councillors who didn’t appear at the budget open houses.
Dalrymple said the deficit cloud hanging over HRM isn’t a one-off as he expects tough decisions will need to be made when budget deliberations for 2011-2012 begin. He added things that could have also been cut were pushed to budget debates for next year.
“Are there a few more things that we can cut? Yes there are,” Dalrymple said. “We’re going to have not as bad a problem, but we’re going to have a deficit next year. We’ll have to cut a few more things.”
phealey@enfieldweeklypress.com