YARMOUTH COUNTY, NS - Residential and commercial rates for the Municipality of Yarmouth are rising by one cent for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
The new residential rate is $1.17 per $100 of assessment and the commercial rate is $2.16 per $100 of assessment.
Councillor Trevor Cunningham commented on why he agreed with the rise in taxes after their approval at the May 23 council meeting.
“We are embarking on a series of capital projects – including the Arcadia sidewalk replacement, engineering and capital costs for the Milo project, which I think is a flagship project for the Municipality of Yarmouth.
“There are also joint council capital requirements in the Mariners Centre, the ferry terminal and airport.”
Sewer rates were set at $328.65 per year for Arcadia, Hebron/Dayton, Port Maitland, South Ohio.
Fire rates are as follows, per $100 of assessment: Carleton .11, Port Maitland .14, Yarmouth .16, Lakes & District .17, Lake Vaughan .15, Valley & District .08 and Kemptville .11.
The Municipality of Yarmouth will be tackling a list of improvements and upgrades for the 2018-2019 fiscal year financed in part by its recently approved $4,075,000 capital budget.
Greg Shay, director of finance for the Municipality of Yarmouth, presented the operating budget first for 2018-2019. The overall total operational revenues for the fiscal year are budgeted at $12,304,103. This includes residential and business property taxes, gas tax, etc.
The expenditure side of the equation includes general administration, RCMP and protective services, fire protection, animal pest control, street lighting, environmental services, recreation and other costs. The total expenditures add up to $12, 293,946.
“That will give us a small budget surplus for the year of $10,157,” said Shay.
The capital budget for 2018-2019 is $4,075,000, a combined spend between the capital reserve fund and gas tax funds.
“I hesitate to use that word budget… it’s more of a plan,” said Shay.
Councillor Trevor Cunningham took issue with expenditures planned for the public works building.
“I’ve gone on record as not supporting the public works building from the beginning. I think there are other priorities that most of the residents I’ve talked to would put first,” he said.
Councillor John Cunningham said he was pleased to see rural broadband internet improvements on the list in co-operation with the Western Regional Enterprise Network, to “make sure that every person in the municipality and district of Yarmouth has access to rural broadband and, hopefully along with that, cellular service.”
Councillor Patti Durkee said she was pleased to see council moving forward with some upgrades to the Hebron business park.
“It’s been around for about 30 years and I think in order to grow our economic development we need to move forward with making changes, so we can start attracting businesses to want to be there. Once we do that, it will improve our tax base.”
