News16 February 2021
By Mike Baker
History was likely made at the Haliburton BIA’s 2021 annual general meeting on Thursday evening [Feb. 11] as the organization announced it would be reducing its annual tax levy for downtown merchants.
Luke Schell, board chair of the local BIA, admitted it had been a “strange year” for most downtown businesses, and that lower-than-expected expenses over the course of 2020 would allow the organization to give a break to their around 120 members this year.
“What’s happened is we didn’t spend as much of our levy in the budget as we needed to last year, so for the first time in the [many years] of the BIA, our levy is going to be reduced,” Schell said.