NORTHERN PENINSULA - Mayor Sheila Fitzgerald says Roddickton-Bide Arm had to be frugal to balance its 2018 budget, which means some increases in taxes, including the mil rate.
But the mayor stresses there will be no cuts to the town’s services.
The total budget for 2018 is $1.6 million, up from $1.2 million the previous year. After bringing the mil rate down to six mils in 2016, council has had to raise it to 6.75 mils for the 2018 budget.
Fitzgerald says property owners will therefore see a “little” difference on their bill this year, but says it won’t be huge.
According to Fitzgerald, council had to make the adjustment as the cost of many basic essentials and services has increased.
“In order to maintain the same level of service we have now, we had to increase the mil rate by a small amount,” she told the Northern Pen.
This will be paired with an increase of $25 per household for the cost of the town’s water and sewer.
Fitzgerald says residents have to wait for the province to fix issues like the waterlines springing leaks because the town doesn’t have the extra leverage in its budget to do so.
As elsewhere in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, the town’s tax base continues to decline. In the 2016 census, the population of Roddickton-Bide Arm was down to 999, from 1,057 in 2011.
For Fitzgerald, that makes it even more difficult to repair problems, and contributes to the need to raise taxes.
The elimination of Job Creation Partnership (JCP) program positions in recent years has also been a setback for the town. In its 2018 budget, council made a recommendation for an additional full-time labourer.
Fitzgerald says the town used to get two JCP positions, plus an additional position at the end of the year to give work to someone who needed a few extra hours to get their unemployment benefits.
Now, it’s down to just one position. Last year, it wasn’t allotted until the fall.
The town currently has three full-time employees – the town manager, town clerk, and maintenance worker.
Before, the extra workers from the JCP would help but now, one maintenance worker can’t handle the work around town alone.
“We depended on having a couple extra hands around from the JCP in the spring,” said Fitzgerald. “We didn’t have it this summer and we struggled big time. We ended up having to hire a second person. One man, by himself, can’t replace a waterline.”
Money has also been allotted for a fireman’s ball, a new AED defibrillator at the arena, a security camera for the watershed, and a second four-by-four truck for the maintenance worker.
“We’re very eager to say we were able to bring forth a sound budget and decisions that were made were taken very seriously,” said Fitzgerald. “We’re very conscious of trying to maintain the same level of services without huge increases to the tax payer. It took us a long time and we trimmed off wherever we could trim off.
“There’s no extras in this budget,” she continued. “We don’t have extra money to do extra things. So, we’re doing the best we can with the limited resources we have.”
St. Anthony budget approved
St. Anthony’s budget for 2018 has been approved by the provincial government, town manager Curtis Richards informed council during the Jan. 9 public meeting.
Councillor Darl Scott presented the balanced budget to council during the previous public council meeting on Dec. 18.
Council adopted the budget on that date.
The 2018 budget has seen a small overall increase from 2017, up to $2,906,191.87 from $2,893,068.
There are no tax increases from 2017 in St. Anthony’s budget.
The mil rate for residential property tax stands at six mils, while the mil rate for commercial property tax stands at eight mils.
The minimum property tax is $300, and the poll tax is $200.
The budget includes money to finance a new fire station and water and road upgrades for Cormack and Cabot Street, as well as money to finance new asphalt for side streets.
Anchor Point maintains services
Mayor Gerry Gros says the big objective for Anchor Point’s 2018 budget was to maintain the same level of services and to improve roads and the water system.
Gros says the budget was approached “with a great deal of responsibility.”
“We put a lot of thought into it,” he told the Northern Pen.
One change in the budget is the mil rate, which has been increased from nine to 9.5 mils.
Gros says this is in order to cover costs of paving, which is to be conducted on all of the town’s roads, as well as a new standby generator for the pump house and a heated storage building for equipment.
The provincial government hasn’t formally approved the budget, but Gros says council received verbal notification that it was approved.
The total budget sits at around $292,000, which the town clerk says is similar to last year’s.
