Halifax council passed its $1.3-billion budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which includes a tax increase of 6.3 per cent.
The tax increase would be about $214 for a single-family home in the municipality. That makes the annual municipal tax total $3,589, according to the budget.
The original proposed tax increase was 8 per cent. But the municipality no longer has to collect taxes for housing and corrections in 2024-5, which is partly why the tax increase could be lowered to 6.3 per cent.
This table shows how the newly approved 2024-25 budget for the Halifax Regional Municipality will affect the average single-family household, according to the budget proposal. (Source: Halifax Regional Municipality)
The budget passed unanimously during council’s meeting on Tuesday.
It includes an operating budget of $1.04 billion and a capital budget of $310 million. The budget totals $1.3 billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the municipality had an operating budget of $979.6 million and a capital budget of $333 million.
Transit fare increase
Halifax Transit bus fare will go up 25 cents to $3 for adults in September. Fares last increased in 2019, although a 2023 proposal to raise rates was voted down.
The city hopes the hike will generate $700,000 in revenue.
More people are using transit in the city, and the city projects riders to stay relatively stable, growing from a projected 167,758 people in 2023-24 to a projected 168,000 people in 2024-25.
With their projections, the bus fare increase would give the municipality more than $1 million next year.
Other budget highlights:
Communities
- $2 million for a 24/7 fire station conversion in Hammonds Plains
- funding for 22 new Halifax Regional Police positions and six new Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers
- $2.3 million in continued community safety programs and new positions
- funding for 10 new crossing guard positions
Economy
- $7.5 million in budgeted tax relief for non-profit and charitable organizations
Environment
- $18.6 million for capital projects as part of HalifACT: Acting on Climate Together
Integrated Mobility
- $271 million for the Mill Cove Ferry Terminal project
- $2.4 million for funding of the Integrated Mobility Plan
Budget reaction
Halifax Mayor mike Savage says the budget planning went well.
However, he thinks municipal funding needs “a new formula.”
He says Halifax might be experiencing a lot of growth, but a lot of the money in the city — whether it’s income tax, sales tax or something else — does not necessarily go to the municipality. He says the municipality bears a lot of the infrastructure costs in the city.
While the country rushes to build housing, he says the municipality collects less than 10 per cent of all tax, so they don’t enough to make some necessary changes.
“It’s just clear as anything that we need a more fair way of allocating revenues that come from people, especially when we’re trying to house more and more of them and the costs fall to us,” says Savage.
Despite that, he says the council wants to balance the tax rate and that the municipality has a good record.
Coun. Lindell Smith says he was one of the councillors who wanted the tax increase to be higher.
Staff told council a few years ago that budgets would get harder and harder because of inflation and the general “financial hardships of municipalities,” he says.
He says that council will have a hard time with future budgets because the rate was not increased more than 6.3 per cent.
That increase would be necessary for services that residents want, he says.
“I think what we did was good in terms of keeping [the tax rate] down, but the next budgets are going to be difficult, because money is going to be needed to keep those services going,” says Smith.
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