MULGRAVE: Officials in the Town of Mulgrave have held the line on their tax rates.
Councillors approved their 2020-21 budget during a special meeting on June 29.
Mulgrave’s rates remain at $1.23 per $100 of assessment for residential customers, with the commercial rate being $4.52/$100 of assessment.
As part of their 2019-20 budget, councillors then approved a tax rate increase.
Following the special meeting, Ralph Hadley, the town’s mayor, indicated they simply couldn’t raise tax rates for a second ear in a row.
“We couldn’t increase again this year,” Hadley said. “It wouldn’t be right on our taxpayers to go two years.”
Mulgrave balanced their $1.7 million budget without having to dip into reserve funds – indicating it was a bit of a challenging process to do so while also avoiding an increase to their tax rates.
“We’re paying enough,” Hadley said. “It was hard scrapings, but we still made it.”
Advising COVID-19 has had a definite impact on the town’s finances, he indicated the pandemic has increased some of their expenditures, but also created areas of cost-savings as a result of services being temporarily reduced.
During the meeting, councillors also approved their $642,281 capital plan, which will see three streets receiving major upgrades.
Town staff will repave sections of Murray Street, Hattie Street, and Main Street, which are some of the highest trafficked areas in the town.
“We’re tired of beating our vehicles up,” Hadley said. “And everybody complaining about the roads.”
He indicates the town will use reserve funds, and a loan up against incoming gas tax, which will leave some money in the town’s reserve accounts.
“We kept putting it off, putting it off,” Hadley said. “We haven’t got a lot of money, so we do a little at a time. We’re tired of band-aiding, patching, and patching, and patching.”
Included in the capital budget are also water main repairs along with other equipment purchases.