Residents of Bridgewater will have another chance to have their say on the town’s proposed 2021-22 budget.
Council will host its second public consultation session Tuesday night as they debate a proposed 10 cent increase in the residential tax rate.
Mayor David Mitchell says they aren’t looking at hiking the rate for businesses in the town which would leave the rate at $3.75 per $100 of assessment.
“It was recognizing the challenges they are facing and not just the challenges with the pandemic,” he explained in a recent interview. “Small town Nova Scotia is trying to rebuild the local economy and this is not the time to hit them with a tax rate increase.”
Meantime, council is debating a significant increase in the residential tax rate which after the 10 cent hike, if approved, would put the rate at $1.75 per $100 of assessment. It would mark the first increase in nine years.
“Unfortunately, a lot of municipalities increase by small amounts year to year and it’s unpredictable, in our case, we wanted to provide residents with some financial stability so that they know what the rate will be for the next few years.” said Mitchell.
Mitchell confirms the town is not looking at reducing any services currently offered by the town.
“In speaking with our residents, they were adamant that they did not want to see any service reductions…so there aren’t any in this budget.”
Waste water rates could rise 15 per cent to help pay for required upgrades to aging infrastructure.
The next meeting goes Tuesday night at 6 p.m. and will be streamed on the town’s Facebook page.
