Budgets

Municipalities create budgets each year to account for all public funding, and to ensure that services can be maintained or improved.  Kentville has two main budgets:

Operating Budget:  The day-to-day expenses of the town, including staff salaries, are managed under this budget. For example gas for vehicles, small tools to maintain parks and trails, and fertilizer for the baseball fields.

Capital Budget: Larger or longer-term purchases are managed under this budget.  For example trucks, irrigation under the baseball fields, and grandstands.

The town has other budgets for separate entities like the water commission and sanitary sewer.  All our budgets are available for you to review, at the bottom of this page.

Property Taxes

A provincial organization called Property Valuation Services corporation assesses properties each year and gives this information to deed holders and to the Town.  The town sends out property tax bills based on these assessments.

Your property tax bill shows the tax rates for your property, as well as different levys that the town applies to your property. The video below shows you how to understand your property tax bill and these additional fees.

Annual Financial Audit

Every year, Kentville must balance the town’s operating budget and account for all anticipated spending.  This is a requirement of the province: the town must show respect and planning for how public funds are being spent.  The town’s financial statements are also reviewed by Council and an independent auditor to ensure staff are using the accounting best practices and standards. 

Residents can also look at the town’s Audited Financial Statements in the sidebar.

Revenues

The town uses a variety of revenue sources to pay for the services that residents depend on and use every day, and they include:

• property taxes
• utility user fee (sewer and water charges)
• other user fees (recreation passes/registrations/facility rentals)
• permits and licensing fees (building permits, taxi licenses, tax information, etc.)

The town also has access to other forms of funding—which are generally used for capital projects—such as:

• grants from provincial and federal governments and their agencies
• proceeds from borrowing long term
• reserve funds (savings built up over time)

The bar charts below show the sources of revenue for this year and for the previous year, to compare. 

Expenses

The Town of Kentville offers residents so many services, it would be difficult to list them all here!  The pie chart below shows how property tax dollars are spent on services and programs this year and last year, to compare.