Residential tax bills in La Nation will be increasing very slightly.
Council unanimously approved the 2019 budget on March 4 with a 0.06 per cent increase in the mill rate.
The average residential property in La Nation is valued at $258,617. The increase means that the owner of a property with that value will pay $1.90 more than in 2018. The rate increase is equal to 73 cents per every $100,000 of assessed residential property value.
“It is not a great impact,” said Treasurer Cécile Maisonneuve.
However, Mayor Francois St-Amour noted that the majority of the municipality’s tax base is residential.
St-Amour had been hoping for a zero residential rate increase but said
Industrial taxes are going down, though.
Owners of those properties paid $1,949.76 per $100,000 of assessed value in 2018. In 2019, the amount is decreasing by $76.02 to $1,873.75.
St-Amour noted that industrial property valuations are higher. That means there will be no reduction in revenue.
The agricultural rate increase is remaining the same as 2018 at 0.25 per cent.
The total budget for La Nation in 2019 is more than $38.9 million, an increase of more than $1.4 million, or 3.7 per cent more than 2018.
Tax revenue is projected to provide more than $11.3 million and more than $1 million is supposed to come from grants and interest.
Capital revenue is estimated at $18.9 million and capital spending is projected to be more than $20.3 million. The $1.4-million increase in the amount of the budget from 2018 is going towards increased capital spending.
Operations revenue composes more than $20 million of the budget, and operations spending is estimated at more than $18.6 million.
Sewer and water system budgets for St-Isidore, St-Bernardin, Limoges, and St-Albert are financed through user fees.
