ANTIGONISH: Officials in the Municipality of the County of Antigonish have held the line on municipal taxes for the 12th straight year.
Council unanimously approved their 2020-21 municipal operating and capital budget during a council meeting on June 8.
The residential rate remains $0.88/$100 of assessment, which is among the lowest rates in the province; while their commercial rate stays at $1.46, which is the lowest commercial rate in Nova Scotia.
“The municipality continues to be a strong financial steward,” Warden Owen McCarron stated. “Demonstrated by our ability to invest in municipal operations and infrastructure, pay down debt, and maintain one of the most competitive tax rates in the province, both residential and commercial.”
McCarron indicated it was important for the municipality not to pass any potential shortfalls onto ratepayers.
“There’s a lot of challenges, and we just felt that we needed to take a careful look at each and every line item within our budget, and make sure that we’re operating on a very lean budget,” he said. “This budget is a lean budget.”
The warden advised they were able to balance the overall $15.6 million budget without using emergency provincial loans established to help municipalities offset economic losses from COVID-19.
Some of the major expenses included in this year’s budget include a mandatory $3.7 million contribution to education which accounts for 23.7 per cent of the budget and $3.3 million towards protective services which accounts for 21.2 per cent of the budget.