1/ The NS government says families will save $1,400 from tax cuts. But averages hide who really benefits. We ran the numbers. 🧵

When you really dig down into it the two (not monied interest) sides of this debate are: I don't understand my and/or the city's budget, and demand lower taxes. Vs. I do understand my and/or the city's budget and demand better services and understand I have to pay for it.

“The road budget has ballooned. You’re finding 10s of millions for suburban asphalt. You’re prioritizing pavement over people” 👏👏👏👏

"Now, the government has more levers to quickly deny what it considers “special interests” – and support those who are politically aligned – with funding, land-development edicts or appointments to positions." #nspoli www.saltwire.com/cape-breton/...

The city budget is fragile and we're on a downward spiral towards being broken.

"Mr. Houston listens only to industries, facilitating their wish to make money by degrading the land and its freshwaters. Those who speak for nature and environmental consequences are labelled “the enemy.”"

Tax me, daddy

I’m really impressed with all the HaliSky folks who’ve come together to advocate for fiscal sustainability in Halifax. Unlike the astroturf landlord group with their clickbait facebook survey, we now have a website with facts & tools for folks to contact council. Send those emails! #TaxMeDaddy

Girls be like “I need this” And it’s just the premier getting boo’d on repeat.

In Alberta, this is what we call manufacturing a fiscal crisis to defund services.

Fun fact: bridge toll removal and 1% HST reduction cost us appx $300 million. All of the devastating cuts in the current budget? $300 million. Is your 1% HST cut worth the loss of tourism, arts & culture, educational quality and wildlife conservation in NS?

I would happily pay one more percentage point on the HST, for bridge tolls, and for parking to help fund grants, museums, bus passes for students, and more #taxmedaddy.

The African Nova Scotian community simply isn’t having it. ✊ -ND

“This [#Nova Scotia budget] will deepen inequality, whether you look at it by income, by gender, by race, by rural community,” @csaulnier.bsky.social said. “Women actually make up 63% of public sector jobs. They will be disproportionately affected by cuts.” www.halifaxexaminer.ca/dismantling-...

Tim Houston in opposition: The Premier needs to be held to account. Tim Houston as Premier: How dare you try to hold me to account?

Media Release of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs.

Tim Houston made hundreds of thousands in cuts to tourism and culture, but had $300,000 to gift to mining developers, citing that “mineral exploration brings $35 to $50 million per year to Nova Scotia communities” Meanwhile tourism revenue in NS in 2025 was $3.7 billion, growing ~8% per year.

The minister can’t provide a single coherent reason for cutting $130M in grants to community organizations. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

While all these cuts are horrifying, I want to be clear that, at the moment, these are PROPOSED cuts. There’s still time to your voice heard. Call or email your MLA. Call or email Tim Houston’s office. Call or email the Ministers related to the cuts you’re most angry about. See below for contacts.

If these cuts aren't reversed, anyone with cash to spare is going to be paying way more than $12/month to arts groups, trails groups, hospitals, etc. Taxation spreads the responsibility for shared life. And that shared life is more than just fire, police, and highways.

You know what I am willing to do to avoid these cuts? Put the 1% tax cut for business back. Put the bridge and road tolls back. I’ll pay taxes and tolls before I watch frontline services and grants be gutted. #nspoli

Hey @novascotiandp.bsky.social here's free advice, run that clip, uninterrupted, on TV and radio.

About that $1,400 average tax cut. There is no actual average Nova Scotian. The avg includes the higher income and the lower income; one benefits 10 times more (fr HST & PIT cut). Income of $290,000 or more, taxes reduced by $2,600, income of $25K and less by $256. (Using SPSD/M stats can modelling)

Attacking reporters and ascribing malice to legitimate questions are part of a growing comms strategy among politicians who abhor accountability.

I just got confirmation that Tim Houston’s PCs cut the entire Writers in the Schools program. This man is cutting a program that lets children meet and learn from local authors (among many many other things) so he can spend $5 million teaching civil servants to use AI.

The $1.2 B deficit caused entirely by them spending $1.6B outside the budget without debate or oversight. So really a $400M surplus if they hadn't gone on a semi legal spending spree

I'll fumble writing this but the outrage that Houston and Fillmore whipped up over bike lanes partly led to these drastic and horrific cuts. There were successful in getting some people blaming bike lanes and people who ride bikes for other issues in the city and province. 1/2

NS conservative Premier Houston’s austerity budget is cutting the heart out of the province, because of the massive deficit his govt incurred. NS needs revenue, but the govt continues to give away many millions of pristine water for … $729. www.halifaxexaminer.ca/environment/...

What history tells us about Halifax’s budget debate by @stillots1.bsky.social

The Houston gov’t lost more than $300 million in revenue annually by cutting bridge tolls and 1% from HST. They also spent more than $6 billion outside of budget processes over the last few years. Now they cut two of our biggest economic sectors (tourism and arts and culture) to deal with deficit?

I want every single reporter, every pundit, every advocate, every EVERYONE to point out the cost of the bridge toll removal and 1% HST cut. Every time someone asks you about the budget. Every time a politician has a microphone in their face. In the Legislature.

One of the worst things about modern politics is how real choices aren't presented as decisions are made. I wonder how people would really have felt about the 1% HST cut if they knew it would mean all of this being cut. But we, the body politic, didn't get to consider those two things together!

You know so many of these cuts disproportionately impact youth, femme, and rural folks. Why aren’t we upping the taxes of big businesses and reinstating the tolls on the bridge and the Pass?

shorter version: Andy is just going to keep introducing motions and briefing notes and nonsense in order to obfuscate and make it look like he's the only person on council who is doing anything

"Handyside questioned why HRM appears to be doing nothing to hold the developer accountable." so, they couldn't put a bike lane on Morris because of "concerns" about emergency vehicle access yet no one's doing anything about this?

🧵 This closely aligns with my views on last Friday's... let's call it what it was... stunt by the mayor. He is not trying to govern or solve problems, he's playing acting for whatever job he wants after this one.

Austerity Andy deliberately mislead council by pretending his motion to cut jobs was airtight because he'd "spoken with the CAO twice to ensure [it] was doable", and THEN he tried to pretend that the chair had cut the CAO's mic before he could be vindicated (she did not). Let's talk about it. 🧵

I'm putting an order together this weekend. If you'd like to get a "Tax me, daddy!" shirt please send me a DM and I'll get you the details #Halisky

‘Cowardly cutting off an important arm’ of government: Retired DNR manager on elimination of wildlife division "My prediction: In the days and weeks ahead, Premier Tim Houston may very well soon learn just how massive “special interest” groups are in Nova Scotia."

He wants a 7% cut in payroll and a 13% increase in his office budget.

Reminder that what he’s calling a poll here is actually just the number of clicks on 30 grand worth of facebook ads.

Got to love that the mayor of Halifax is using a poll from an attack ad paid by landlords to inform him on what to cut, on a social media site that bans canadians from accessing and sharing news and no longer does fact checking, and the ad allows anyone to sign up lol

paying $13,000 for a speech about austerity that nobody can remember vs. showing up for free, saying services are good, ending on “tax me daddy”

This quote from Bob Bancroft: “Nature deserves a better shake in this province.” We will all pay for these decisions.

After pushing to cut millions, Halifax mayor looking for 16 per cent increase to his office budget www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/...

It's actually probably closer to 10 years of property taxes' cause this number assumes last year's numbers across all six years.

It would take a minimum wage worker, working 40 hours a week, almost 20 weeks to earn what Andy Fillmore spent on one speech that probably no one even remembers.

~$430 per minute for the Mayor's state of the municipality address. paid to an outside consultant and speechwriter (no shade on them, get that bag). can't stop talking about wasteful spending but it's all projection. this man never met a dollar of someone else's money he couldn't fritter away.

Would #halisky folks be interested in some "Tax me, daddy" t-shirts with all proceeds going to a local community group?