Council for the Rural Municipality of Hanover is lowering taxes this year.

Council unanimously approved its 2018 budget Wednesday. Total tax revenue this year will be $19,358,772. About 41 per cent of that is municipal taxes, while 55 per cent goes to the Hanover School Division and less than 4 per cent to the provincial ESL.

Hanover Reeve Stan Toews says their budget is higher than in 2017, but because of growth, they are able to lower the mill rate, while still taking in more tax dollars.

Toews explains for a home assessed at $250,000, where assessment did not go up, ratepayers will pay $82 less this year in Grunthal and Blumenort, $74 less in Mitchell, $32 less in Kleefeld, $28 less in New Bothwell and $25 less in the rural area.

Department managers were asked to maintain budgetary increases to no more than 1.5 per cent, with the exception for Rural Road Maintenance. That program requires an increase in the range of 15 per cent. Toews says that is necessary in order to add more gravel.

"We're just short on gravel on a lot of our roads," explains Toews. "If we check with our neighbours, they are all spending more money per mile on gravel as well. So we just have to put more on there because there's more traffic, so we can keep them in good shape."

The municipality is budgeting about $800,000 on gravel in 2018.

Toews says some of the significant capital projects this year include construction of a fire hall in Blumenort, paving Pansy Road and rebuilding Centre Street South in Mitchell and Aspen Drive in Kleefeld.

Not one ratepayer showed up for Wednesday's financial plan hearing.

Meanwhile, the municipality has a program in place where residents are able to pay their taxes in monthly instalments. Toews says to date about 120 ratepayers are capitalizing on this program. As a result, the municipality is collecting about $28,000 in taxes each month.

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