It'll be a status quo budget for the R.M. of Dufferin in 2018/19. Council has proposed just over $5 million in spending for the year, representing a slight increase of $250,000. 

With education costs claiming two-thirds of farmland tax bills in 2018, Gray is welcoming the Province's review of how education is funded in Manitoba.

2018 is an assessment year and Reeve George Gray said ratepayers will be impacted in different ways.

An assessment increase of 3.3 per cent combined with a mitigated mill rate, will see taxes on a residential property decrease an average $169. 

Commercial properties will see an average assessment increase of 4.7 per cent but that won't increase those particular tax bills. Gray explained the R.M. has also mitigated that mill rate which means 2018 taxes on commercial properties valued at $700,000 will come in about $500 less than in 2017.

Gray added however, farmland owners aren't so lucky and are once again getting hit with a big tax bill in 2018. An assessment increase of 24.5 per cent is bumping up taxes about $390 on a quarter section of land assessed at $722,000. Gray said council has reduced this mill rate as well in order to offset the increase on the education tax portion of the bill, which makes up two-thirds of the total.     

He welcomes the province's planned review of how education is funded in Manitoba.

"It has to be lifted off the backs of agriculture. There's less and less farmers all the time, granted they're getting bigger, but their tax bills are getting higher and higher and it's becoming a line item in their budget. It's just unfair."

Meantime, the biggest expenditure facing the R.M. of Dufferin in 2018 is a $1 million contribution to the personal care home project. Gray explained however, that money is coming from a residential tax separate from the normal property tax.

The municipality will also spend about $125 thousand dollars to hook up 3 businesses and 10 residences along Highway 3 to the Town of Carman's sewer system.

Meantime, Gray said the R.M. will fork-over about $35,000 in a joint effort with the Town of Carman to build a helipad at Carman Memorial Hospital.

The cost of these two projects will be covered by the municipality's reserve funds.