CBRM council passes budget with 3.5% general tax rate increase

Councillors have voted 7-6 in favour of hiking the general tax rate 3.5 per cent in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, after lengthy and sometimes angry budget talks.

Mayor Amanda McDougall was one of those who voted for the measure after nearly three months of wrangling with the financial numbers.

"I hate the fact that we have to put a tax increase in place, from a human perspective," she said. "My worry is that if we didn't do that, what services would be cut that would hurt even deeper to the wider community?"

Several councillors objected to the proposed tax hike but voted in favour anyway, saying they felt they had no choice.

Staff said they cut as much from the budget as they could and anything more would have meant cutting services.

"I think this was one of the most painful budgets that I've been through in my almost seven years here at the CBRM," McDougall said.

"We put staff through the wringer in terms of, 'okay, go back to the table to see what you can cut from your budgets.' And ultimately staff came back and said, 'if you want to cut more from our budgets, we're cutting services from residents.'"

Coun. Earlene MacMullin expressed frustration over the fallout from last year's five per cent tax cut, and some councillors agreed.

She said she felt "beaten" by colleagues, staff, businesses and organizations, partly because an increase in general property assessments wiped out the effect of the tax cut and left CBRM with a drop in revenue this year.

MacMullin, who voted for the tax cut last year, said residents can't afford to pay more, but they also can't afford to lose important services.

She voted in favour of the increase on Tuesday "because I can't find any other way," she said.

"It sucks. There's no one around this table that wants to do this."

When budget talks began in April, staff said they had trimmed an $8-million shortfall down to $4.2 million.

Councillors then voted on several measures that reduced the deficit to $2.4 million.

But at a subsequent session, councillors added items back in that brought the shortfall to $3 million.

Councillors Gordon MacDonald, Lorne Green and Steve Parsons argued for staff to trim travel and overtime expenses and to find other cuts.

Coun. Ken Tracey said he wasn't interested in cutting overtime budgets for fire or police, because those services are necessary to protect residents. Coun. Eldon MacDonald said he would not support cuts that might mean less salting or plowing in winter.

Those who voted in favour of the tax increase included:

• Mayor Amanda McDougall,
• Coun. Darren O'Quinn,
• Coun. Darren Bruckschwaiger,
• Coun. Ken Tracey,
• Coun. Eldon MacDonald,
• Coun. Steve Gillespie and
• Coun. Earlene MacMullin.

Those who voted against:

• Coun. Lorne Green,
• Deputy Mayor James Edwards,
• Coun. Steve Parsons,
• Coun. Glenn Paruch,
• Coun. Cyril MacDonald and
• Coun. Gordon MacDonald.

On Tuesday, councillors started again with a $4.2-million shortfall on a budget of roughly $174 million and voted to dip into the operating reserve account for $418,000.

In addition to increasing the general tax rate 3.5 per cent, they also voted to decrease the fire hydrant charge by two cents per $100 of assessment, and to increase the transit tax to 12.5 cents per $100 of assessment for properties near bus routes.

However, councillors decided against making residents pay a tipping fee at the dump, despite approving the suggestion earlier this year.

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