The City of Corner Brook delivered its 2019 budget earlier this week. Total spending in this year’s budget has increased by 1.98 per cent and the residential mil rate increased from 0.75 mils to 8.25 mils for an overall net increase of 4.33 per cent for residential property owners.
Question: What did you think of the budget document and how did it affect you?
Nina Peddle
Corner Brook
Is there no end to it or what? When I bought my home 10 years ago I was paying over $660 in taxes and now I’m paying almost $1,100. Something has to give. The older people, especially, how are they going to keep up with it? They can’t. If they're going to do that they have to do something to compensate.
Bernard Keating
Corner Brook
I have no opinion on the city’s budget. I haven’t heard a thing about it. I don’t get involved with stuff like that.
Barry Gosse
Corner Brook
I didn’t know that the budget came out, but any budget is usually them wasting a lot of the money they do have with the budget and they get it done the wrong time of the year as far as I am concerned. They shouldn’t raise the taxes at all. The taxes are already high enough.
Jeffrey Strickland
Corner Brook
If taxes are going up that’s going to affect everybody in every which way: the cost of living, bills, really everything. It blows my mind because it’s like they’re trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. They think they’re going to get more money, but people are spending all the money they have on their livelihood and food just to survive.
Ray Hull
Corner Brook
Taxes are gone up. The city has to run. The (assessments) went down so it’s expected. You can’t go below what you budgeted last year. Inflation puts everything up. I expected the mil rate to go up to correspond to the property value and I’m fine with it.
Matt Wayson
York Harbour
I live in York Harbour so it doesn’t affect me, but obviously for anybody who lives in the city it’s going to be tough because people are already paying high rent and high mortgages … There’s only so much money to go around every week. It’s not good when taxes go up.