Council hikes taxes 2.4%, humane society scoops poop

Sault Ste. Marie City Council tonight approved a 2006 budget that includes a 2.43 percent tax hike.

The City's number gurus didn't have time to crunch the numbers for us tonight, but their initial guess was that the increase would translate into something like a $50 increase for a typical ratepayer with a $100,000 assessment that hasn't changed from last year.

They're planning to release hard numbers on the effect of the tax hike tomorrow morning.

Some highlights of the $140 million budget:

- $277,890 in core funding for the Innovation Centre Sault Ste. Marie

- $10,000 operating grant for the Museum Ship Norgoma

- $20,000 for a West Nile Virus control program

- $12,500 for a Dutch Elm Disease injection program

- $40,000 capital funding for the Sault Ste. Marie Hospice

- $10,000 for a brochure showing local heritage buildings

- $33,570 for a heritage property at Kensington Terrace

- $36,000 operating grant increase for the Sault Ste. Marie Museum

- $45,000 operating grant increase for the Art Gallery of Ontario

- $50,000 for Destiny Sault Ste. Marie

- $75,000 for the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre

- $10,000 for the Economic Development Corp. GIS Services.

The cash-rich Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society, which refused to make its financial statements public after its members-only annual meeting last week, was sent away with its tail between its legs.

Two requests - one for a $35,000 grant for new humane society staff and another for an animal shelter security upgrade with no cost specified, were pooper-scooped by councillors.