After several years of holding the line, with tax increases around two per cent, Wellington County residents could be looking at a slightly higher rise in the local levy in 2015.
At a budget meeting in Aboyne on Jan. 6, county councillors were presented with a draft budget projecting a 3.2% tax increase this year and a five-year plan that would see tax increases range from 3.4 to 3.9% annually between 2016 and 2019.
Treasurer Ken DeHart told councillors the figures represent a decrease from November projections that would have seen taxes rising by 3.8% in 2015 and increasing by between 3.4 and 4.1% in the longer term.
From 2011 to 2014, county taxes increased by 2.7, 1.9, 2.4 and 2.2% respectively.
DeHart said higher than anticipated assessment growth (1.5% rather than 1%), combined with increased revenue from grants through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund and Waste Diversion Ontario and a planned increase in tipping fees at county landfill sites, contributed to higher revenue projections.
Reduced cost expectations in the area of public health also added to the rosier 2015 financial picture, outweighing increased projections for library upgrades in Aboyne (up by $150,000) and Palmerston ($500,000) and a hike in the winter control budget of $400,000 over 2014.
The draft operating budget projects expenditures of $185.8 million in 2015, a figure forecasted to grow to $210.1 million by 2019.
Highlights of the five-year capital plan presented at last week’s meeting include a $63.7-million investment in county roads, bridges and culverts; $6 million to rebuild county garages in Drayton ($3.5 million) and Erin ($2.5 million); and just over $6 million in capital expenditures on solid waste services.
Capital spending on county libraries will continue, with 2015 projects including a $3.5-million restoration of the Palmerston Library (the last of the Carnegie libraries in Wellington to be upgraded), $700,000 worth of improvements at the Aboyne branch, and installation of self check-out terminals in Drayton and Mount Forest, budgeted for about $70,000.
Construction of a new Hillsburgh branch, with a cost estimate of $4 million (including land purchase) is on the books for 2016-17.
Just over $700,000 worth of capital spending is planned for Wellington Terrace, the county’s long-term care facility in Aboyne.
Grants totaling $9.4 million for hospitals in Fergus, Mount Forest and Palmerston are scheduled for distribution in 2019.
Mention of the hospital grants, approved in 2014, prompted councillor Allan Alls to remark, “I assume that we have gone to the province to get this money, which is really a provincial matter.”
Councillor Chris White explained the cash is considered a necessary local contribution, as the province picks up the lion’s share of hospital funding.
Councillor Sean Watters stated hospitals in the county are “very much a part of our economic strategy.”
“If we didn’t have a hospital we wouldn’t have TG Minto, one of the top five (industries) in the county for employment,” said Warden George Bridge, mayor of the Town of Minto.
Bridge also pointed out investment in local health care is among the considerations that helped Wellington County earn its AA+ credit rating.
“I know my predecessor (former Erin mayor Lou Maieron) made a lot of noise on this,” said Alls, adding, “I don’t agree with what my predecessor said on this. I just question how much the province has downloaded.”
On the revenue side, the draft budget projects a continued decline in funding through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF). The 2015 allocation of $2.9 million is down by 20% from 2014, resulting in a loss of $637,200 in revenue. The county’s forecast assumes a further 10% drop in 2016. Other factors impacting the 2015 operating budget will be the new OPP billing model and the traditional two-officers-per-year increase in the local OPP staffing level; loss of City of Guelph funding for Wellington Terrace, as the city is developing its own long-term care facility; and funding for improvements to ambulance response times.
DeHart noted the base OPP contract is projected to cost about $16.4 million in 2015, with an additional cost to add two officers raising that figure by $318,400.
“They don’t actually implement two officers every year?” wondered councillor Gregg Davidson.
“That has been the county policy,” explained DeHart, adding some of the additional officers over the years have been assigned to work with local schools or other groups, helping the county to attain the status of “Safest Community in Canada” according to a 2013 Macleans magazine ranking based on crime statistics.
Proposed staffing changes in the budget would see the equivalent of 8.8 full time positions added, bringing the county’s total full-time equivalent staffing compliment to 618.6 employees. The changes are expected to generate a net cost of just over $427,100.
DeHart explained budget reviews will be conducted at committee/board meetings over the next few weeks, with councillors to receive their full budget information packages by Jan. 16.
