West Hants faced significant budget increases this year in determining its tax rate in these key areas:

• Refuse & Recycling Collection: $161,703
• Fire protection: $35,392
• Annapolis Valley Regional School Board: $30,436
• RCMP: $36,795
• Assessment Services: $29,858
  
  West Hants also lost $91,313 in Equalization revenue from the province!

•  $.93 Residential
• $1.55Commercial
  
  1 cent raises about $56,000 in Revenue
  

 For the previous year, the Municipality realized a small surplus and on July 6th, Council set a tax rate that was decreased by 34 for residential (from 964 to 934) and a 114 increase for the commercial (from $1.44 to $1.55). This is due to phasing out of the Business Occupancy Tax. It was no easy task as we strive to be fiscally responsible in the face of uncontrollable increases. We faced significant budget increases in environmental services, education, policing and fire protection as well as a significant decrease in our annual equalization grant from the Province. We did our best to try and compensate for increased assessments, but at the end of the day, tax bills in most cases will increase to ensure we maintain the same level of service.

Richard Dauphinee,
Warden