Council for the Rural Municipality of Hanover has finalized this year's budget.

Chief Financial Officer Derek Decru says in 2022, Hanover will be collecting $21,887,817 in taxes. Nearly 44 per cent of that, or about $9.6 million is the municipality's portion. The remaining 56 per cent will be going to the Hanover School Division or provincial ESL program.

According to Decru, this year's financial plan will see an increase of about 6.7 per cent in total taxes. The tax mill rate will increase by 3.95 per cent.

The increase in taxes from 2021 to 2022 varies depending on where you live in the municipality. For example, residents of Kleefeld with an average home assessed at $250,000 will see an increase of about $11, while in Mitchell taxes will go up $28, in Grunthal and Blumenort an extra $29, while in New Bothwell, taxes will be going up about $48 per property. For a home in the rural area, the increase in taxes will be about $44, while a rural farm property assessed at $250,000 will see its taxes climb about $26 this year.

Decru says Hanover is again working with a balanced budget in 2022. Their overall capital plan is now in excess of $6.3 million. This includes five rural road construction projects totalling $1.3 million, community infrastructure projects in excess of $1.1 million and recreation projects of more than $1.2 million.

Decru says even though they have some big paving projects planned for 2022, probably their recreation projects is a bigger deal. This includes small renovations to the former Mitchell Senior Centre, constructing a skate park in Mitchell and then relocating the outdoor rink in New Bothwell.

He notes another improvement which the RM recently made is the move to a recreation software for bookings at arenas, pools and recreation centres. Decru says this streamlines the process and hopefully gets more ratepayers using the facilities.

The deadline to pay your taxes this year is October 31st. However, Decru says Hanover has a program where ratepayers can pay their taxes through a monthly installment plan. Currently, the municipality collects about $74,000 a month through this system, which is up from about $45,000 back in 2018.