{"id":60409,"date":"2025-11-19T19:10:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=60409"},"modified":"2025-11-19T19:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T23:10:21","slug":"hrm-mayor-fillmore-advocates-for-affordability-in-municipal-budget-for-2026-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=60409","title":{"rendered":"HRM Mayor Fillmore advocates for affordability in municipal budget for 2026\/2027"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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HALIFAX\/FALL RIVER:<\/strong> Halifax Regional Council\u2019s Budget Committee began developing the 2026\/27 municipal budget on Nov. 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAffordability is the top concern for everyone right now,\u201d says Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Andy Fillmore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur job at City Hall must be to reduce the property tax burden on residents as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2025, Mayor Fillmore presented a motion <\/a>directing municipal staff to develop a bare-bones budget with the only increases coming from unavoidable expenses \u2013 such as inflation, contractual obligations, and mandatory provincial contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That bare-bones budget <\/a>includes an increase of $88.9 million \u2013 or an average tax bill increase of approximately 10.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would come on top of potential 2.4% rate increase from Nova Scotia Power and a 36% increase from Halifax Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese additional costs are simply too high for residents,\u201d continued Mayor Fillmore. \u201cEvery decision we make must reflect the realities our residents face.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Wednesday’s Budget Committee meeting, Mayor Fillmore presented a motion that tasked municipal staff to find further savings. This includes exploring a 10% cut to program grants, reducing the Climate Action Tax by one-third, and implementing a staffing freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This motion was adopted, and the Budget Committee will make further decisions on these items in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing is off the table,\u201d concluded Mayor Fillmore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut through constructive conversations around the Council table and a focus on delivering our core services, I believe we can make decisions that are both responsible and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HALIFAX\/FALL RIVER: Halifax Regional Council\u2019s Budget Committee began developing the 2026\/27 municipal budget on Nov. 19. \u201cAffordability is the top concern for everyone right now,\u201d says Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Andy Fillmore. \u201cOur job at City Hall must be to reduce the property tax burden on residents as much as possible.\u201d In April 2025, Mayor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[9748,3935,527,10,7365,9749,1610,9750,50,121,9751],"class_list":["post-60409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-10-5-per-cent-tax-increase","tag-affordability","tag-andy-fillmore","tag-beaver-bank","tag-billy-gillis","tag-budget-cuts","tag-cathy-deagle-gammon-2","tag-falll-river","tag-halifax","tag-hrm","tag-municipal-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}