Submission to Council

Via the ratepayers group, aka the 700 club , here is David Daniels submission to Council on the MPS and LUB review presented at the last public input meeting, which was held Aug 11. This is only one of several submissions at that meeting.

by David Daniels
Wolfville Ratepayer
August 11, 2008
I am one of the handful of [...]

Deed Transfer Taxes in Nova Scotia

Some of you may have heard about the Welcome to Wolfville tax. The tax referred to is the Deed transfer tax and unfortunately this pernicious levy is not only extracted in Wolfville; we suspect that at least some of the municipalities around have learned from our example here. Wolfville is a leader in the province [...]

Sense on the farm

About ten days ago there was an item in the paper by Glenn Ells in his “on the farm” column which we cut out to comment on. The bit of paper got buried under other bits of paper but we came across it today. It is never too late for good comment but unfortunately our [...]

Revenue neutral assessment

This term, “revenue neutral assessment”, is being tossed about but does anyone really understand what it means? Not likely. Unfortunately using this principle does not necessarily guarantee lower taxes. The town can still increase its budget and hike the tax rate but it does mean more transparency and a clearer (more…)

The unasked question

This was the question we wanted to ask too but Blovkog beat us too it. The question is - who benefitted from the ATV for kiddies deal?
I’ve checked every story written recently on the meat-headed idea by the Province to buy 66 (more…)

Quotation of the week

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. –Galileo Galileo

Municipal salaries

Some interesting figures from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy with a chart giving the percentage of operating expenses devoted to salaries and benefits in various municipalities across the country.

• There is a wide variation in SBE: [Salary and Benefit Expense] The lowest SBE municipalities spend less than half of what the highest spend [...]

Tick season

Via Infomonkey we’ve discovered another NS blog worth putting on our Atlantic blogroll. Here are a few choice excerpts from the most recent post:
Ticks are blood-feeding parasites that are often found in legislative assemblies in little Tartan Republics such as Nova Scotia.
They live the shires where they will wait to attach to a passing tax-payer.
Helicopters [...]

Frank 535

It’s good til June 24th, this ish of Frank Magazine [Frank by Name, Frank by Nature] . Not much Valley news though unless you count a pic of Mark Parent fishing.
In the “Groves of Academe section” which mentions prominently St. F.X , SMU and Dalhousie, Acadia doesn’t (more…)

Mader madness

We continue to follow the sad story of George Gee, owner/operator of Mader’s Tobacco store in Kentville, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of displaying tobacco products in a manner not prescribed under the provincial Tobacco Access Act. He has to reappear in court July 14 to set a trial date. He faces a [...]