City Hall2Mayor Al McDonald says there’s some fine tuning to be done in the 2015 budget.

Council will look at the Assessment Tax Policy Review at tonight’s (Monday) Council Committee meeting, and the Mayor says it relates to the tax rates for the city’s different zones such as residential, industrial and commercial.

McDonald says it is a complicated review, and they are nearing their budget deadlines so he has added a special meeting on Tuesday, as a precaution.

He says “if members of council had any additional questions or concerns, we can’t wait another two weeks for it to be brought back.”

A staff report says the overall tax rate is dropping because of real assessment growth and market assessment value increases. With the education tax rate reduction factored in the drop is 2.6 percent.

Meantime, the city is still going through the process of revamping its comprehensive zoning by-law. It is the first update to this policy in over 30 years.   Council will view another update to the report at tonight’s Committee Council Meeting.

McDonald says they want to get this right so it can fit the city for the next few decades.

Council will also see reports on the annual Noise Exposure Forecast at the Airport, as well as a proposal for expanding a property on West Peninsula Road