Another tax rate reduction for Riverview residents in 2024.
Town Council recently passed its budget of $37,584,006.
The residential tax rate is set at 1.4326 per $100 of assessment, and that’s a decrease of five cents.
It’s the third year in a row the Town has decreased the tax rate.
Water and sewer rates remained the same at $912 per year.
“In terms of highlights from the capital budget, the biggest one on the books for next year is the recreation complex. We have $20 million in the budget for that. We have a couple of fire trucks that we’re going to be looking at purchasing and some upgrades for the Byron Dobson arena. We will be installing a couple of electric vehicle charging stations right at the gazebo along Coverdale Road in Riverview, and we’re pretty excited about that,” Mayor Andrew Leblanc says. “We’re going to continue investments in things like our parks, Mill Creek and a few other playgrounds around town. We’ll be looking at about 4.3 million in local improvement, and we have some resurfacing projects, worth around 2.5 million. Lots of investment in infrastructure, and grants that are going out for community agencies.”
One of the costs that often comes up for discussion at budget time is the RCMP. Leblanc says the Codiac Regional Policing Authority had requested an increase in policing costs.
“We think policing services are improving and things are certainly getting better, especially in terms of community policing, and visibility. We’ve definitely seen an increase in that and it’s something that our residents have been asking for, but the caveat that we gave them is that we would approve the budget, but there’s some missing data that we’re asking for,” Leblanc says.
In their request for increased funding was a plan to hire four additional officers and three civilian positions. Leblanc says they wanted to see performance measurement outcomes, specifying the increased demands and what those roles will be doing, along with how it will impact a strategic vision.
“I think everyone can agree that there’s been a lot of curveballs thrown at everyone over the last couple of years. Inflation is increasing, the cost of living is constantly on the rise, and assessment values have gone through the roof for homes. There are limited things that municipalities can do when it comes to making life affordable and impacting a lot of these inflationary increases, but controlling the tax rate is one of those things that we can do,” Leblanc adds.
