Windsor sets tax rate

By Jennifer Hoegg

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com



Windsor residents will see a drop in property tax rates this year, but town spending will be tight. After four long evenings of deliberation, town council approved the 2008-2009 municipal budget April 30.

Council made few changes from the mid-April proposed budget, setting residential taxes at $1.88 per $100 assessed value, up from staff’s suggestion of $1.87, and down from the $1.99 rate of 2007-2008.

Commercial taxes will stay steady at $3.90. The Windsor Business Enhancement Society’s area rate will also remain at $0.32, and the fire protection rate is set at $0.11.

“This has been an excellent budget debate” Mayor Anna Allen said in a release, “and I commend staff for presenting a lean operating budget given the many financial challenges the town continues to face.”

Most of the residential tax rate cut is due to the new sewage levy. As of April 1, each town water customer will pay $2.04 per 1,000 gallons of water used. This charge is a user-pay strategy to cover town sewage treatment costs. According to Allen, shifting to more of a user-pay model is in line with Windsorians’ priorities. “It is gratifying when Council can deliver on what its residents have been asking. Residents want the users to pay for the services they get …”



More for groups, less for roads



Grants to area organizations are up -- from $27,500 to $49,200. Most of the new funds are for Hockeyland, a proposed hockey heritage interpretative centre, which will receive $25,000 from Windsor this year.

Roughly half of the public works department’s proposed street and sidewalk renewal projects received approval. Planned street renewal work will be conducted on Albert Street and Colonial Road -- estimated to cost $90,000 and $35,000 respectively. As well, $30,000 is allotted for sidewalk renewal on King Street, from Victoria to Gray. Milling and patching on a number of streets will cost another $100,000.

Aging municipal infrastructure will cost Windsor money this year, with repairs to the W.B. Stephens Building, the community centre and rink in the capital budget. Upgrades to the fire station’s exhaust system are also planned for this fiscal year.

Windsor had little wiggle room in a year of a $130,000 revenue shortfall. With a heavy reliance on property tax revenue, new provincial caps on assessments will continue to impact the town’s income in future years.

A $100,000 spike in debt servicing cost, $70,000 for public transit and an overall 4.5 per cent increase in core service expenses made for tough decisions.

The town is also paying more for the tourist bureau operations this year, after 35 years of help from the Jaycees.

With projects still on Windsor’s wish list, including a new fire station and sewage treatment system, the tough decisions are not over. The town begins work on a multi-year plan for capital project financing this year.