News Release

Kelly Says Hamm Government "Difficult to Deal With"

(Friday, August 24/2001)-- Mayor Peter Kelly urged the Hamm government today to make good on its commitment of a year-and-a-half ago to establish a joint board to oversee management of the province's assessment service.

Mayor Kelly said "As it stands now, the municipal taxpayers pay--- and the Province has all of the say. The Province takes our tax dollars to operate a service they control; a service which determines the value of what property is worth in Nova Scotia."

The Mayor said the Province advised municipalities about 18 months ago that it unilaterally decided to develop a full-cost recovery program for the assessment services it was providing, effective April 1^st this year. As a result, the Province will collect approximately $12 million for assessment services this year from municipalities across Nova Scotia-- with HRM paying the lion's share of $4.3 million.

He said " At the time, the municipalities greeted the announcement as a further downloading by the Province. It was akin to "taxation without representation" as far as Halifax Regional Council was concerned, because we had no say over how the service we are paying for, would be managed."

Mayor Kelly stressed that "Under the new plan, the higher the assessment values, the more municipalities have to pay the Province. In other words, the Province was, and still is, holding all of the cards."

The Mayor said the Province responded to the widespread municipal criticism to the plan by promising to establish a joint board to oversee the management of the assessment services. The municipalities would have the majority number on the board.

"It appears that the Province may have realized that things would be different if the board was in place, as it promised, with the municipalities having majority representation. That is why we are concerned about the long delay in setting up the board," he said.

Mayor Kelly concluded by stating that the Assessment Service decision-and the lack of follow-up-- " is an example of our continued concerns to encourage the Province to fulfill its commitments and promises to the taxpayers of not only the Halifax Regional Municipality, but of all municipalities throughout Nova Scotia."

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Mayor Peter Kelly
(902) 490-4010