Media Advisory
Plebiscite Should Not Affect Additional Funding This Year
(Tuesday, July 4/2000)-- Halifax Regional Council recently passed a motion to implement an interim 3.5 cent per $100 of assessment Area Rate in the former Bedford and Halifax County for Supplementary Education Funding this fiscal year.
In addition, Council agreed to hold a plebiscite this fall on the overall issue of Supplementary Education Funding within HRM. The plebiscite will be held in conjunction with the Municipal Election on Saturday, October 21.
Some media reports may have inadvertently left the impression with some citizens recently that if the results of the public plebiscite are "No", the interim 3.5 cent Area Rate will be eliminated this year-as well as in future years.
For clarification, the funding collected this year through the interim 3.5 cent Area Rate on the September municipal tax billing will be turned over to the Halifax Regional School Board to finance various projects in the current school year. In other words, the funding is committed and will likely be spent before the Fall plebiscite is held: therefore, the plebiscite should have no impact on this fiscal year.
HRM will pay approximately $60 million this fiscal year to the Halifax regional School Board for Mandatory Education Funding.(The rate is set by the Province of Nova Scotia.) In addition, taxpayers in the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth will contribute an additional $16.9 million in Supplementary Education Funding this year.
As a result of the recent motion by Halifax Regional Council, an additional $2.4 million will be collected for the first time in the former Bedford and Halifax County areas through the interim 3.5 cent Area Rate for Supplementary Education expenditure in those areas.
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John O'Brien
Corporate Communications Officer
(902) 490-6531
