The Town of Bay Bulls has balanced a $3.1 million budget for 2023, down slightly from the 2022 budget of $3.4 million.
The budget will see some increases in taxes.
Council has increased the residential mil rate to 5 mils, an increase of 0.5 mils over last year, with Mayor Keith O’Driscoll citing inflation as the culprit.
“We all want the best for our residents, tax-wise, and trying to achieve that with the cost of everything increasing is definitely a challenge for us,” said O’Driscoll. “But what we brought forward in our most recent budget is good for our residents, given the circumstances we have before us… We’ve brought in a discount to offset that new rate burden that we had to increase.”
That discount is 12 per cent discount, up from eight percent, for residents who pay their residential property taxes by May 31, 2023.
The vacant land tax has also increased from 4.5 mils to 5 mils.
Council held the commercial mil rate steady at 14.75 mils. All other taxes and fees remain unchanged.
Besides inflation, O’Driscoll cites the provincial government’s rule about “own source revenue” as a reason for the increase.
Council had requested, in November 2021, and then again in October 2022, an exemption from, or reduction to, the requirement, which is a mechanism that determines how much tax revenue towns must collect. Both requests were denied. In effect, council had to approve a higher tax rate than it wanted to implement.
“I was anticipating the result in any case, but we wanted to go through with it anyway,” said O’Driscoll. “The own source revenue requirement is an issue with me, and I’m sure it is for a lot of other towns. Government basically tells us what our minimum tax has to be through own source revenue, which is based on population and industries in the town. That own source revenue is, I think, a hinderance to towns like us. We’re more than capable of managing our budget. We don’t need government to indicate to us what we should be charging in regard to a minimum tax.”
As per the budget, the Town’s largest expense is fiscal services, coming in at $1.5 million. That incudes $1.1 million in capital expenditures and $171,937 in debt payments for upgrades to the Bay Bulls Regional Lifestyle Centre, and $707,556 in general government costs, which includes maintenance, engineering services, professional services, and salaries.
