YARMOUTH, N.S. – The Town of Yarmouth has approved an operating budget that sees revenues and expenses each falling in the $17.7-million-dollar range leaving a razor thin surplus of $2,430 in a budget that will carry the town through to March 31, 2019.
Residential and commercial tax rates are both going up two cents over last year but are still lower than the rates were in recent years. The residential rate in the 2018-19 budget is $1.66 per $100 of assessment and the commercial rate is $4.28 per $100 of assessment.
Last year the Town of Yarmouth had lowered the tax rates from the previous year. The residential rate had been set at $1.64 per $100 of assessment, down by three cents, and the commercial rate was $4.26, which had been a five-cent decrease. The town had a surplus of about $87,000 on a 17-and-a-half-million-dollar budget last year.
The town’s finance department, in crunching the numbers and examining property assessments, which have been flat, previously told council people won’t pay much more in taxes this year than they did last year and some may pay less, depending on the value of their property – for instance if it is valued at $200,000 or below.
The town’s revenues in this budget come in at $17,721,309 with operating expenses projected to be $17,718,879 – leaving the difference of $2,430.
CLICK HERE TO SEE A SUMMARY OF THE OPERATING BUDGET.
EXPENSES
Some of the expenses for the town include $5.024 million for protective services. This includes roughly $2.372 million for police protection. Fire services, which includes fire protection, training, equipment, the station and other categories, costs $2,425,701. Animal control and building inspection are among some of the other services that fall under protective services.
There has been $1.995 million budgeted for transportation, which, among other things, covers transportation services, roads, public transit and parking.
Some of the other expenses include $1.7 million for general government services and $1.021 million for recreation and cultural services.
REVENUE
The town expects to collect $12,676,155 in taxes over the next year.
The town also expects to receive $2,251,303 from “other revenue from own sources.” This includes such things as licenses, permits, fines and fees, rentals and interest on investments and taxes.
CAPITAL BUDGET
Months ago the town had approved its capital budget for the fiscal year, looking to spend around $2.76 million on capital projects.
In passing its operating budget on June 14, the town approved a transfer to the capital fund of $1,920,000 from its depreciation of capital assets.
