Wellington County council is looking at a 2.9 per cent increase in a $176 million budget under consideration for 2013.
Councillors held a meeting in Aboyne on Jan. 4 to hear an inaugural budget presentation by treasurer Ken DeHart.
The treasurer said the increase, if approved by council at the end of the month, will mean a tax hike of about $64 on an average home assessed at $350,000. He also presented the county’s five-year plan.
“In November we were looking at a 4% budget increase in 2013,” DeHart told council, referring to the original starting point before staff found areas to trim.
Councillor Lou Maieron suggested councillors and staff should continue to look at trimming the increase.
But his suggestion of a 2% increase target was met with caution by several councillors concerned about projected budget increases the treasurer anticipates in the next several years.
Councillor John Green said the county will have to look at keeping the increase close to the 2.9% anticipated.
“If you keep cutting it’s going to come back to bite you,” Green said, reminding council the county took on about $32 million in costs when it took over policing and solid waste.
Green, along with councillor Ken Chapman, pointed out that lower tier municipalities could not afford those costs.
The treasurer is projecting budget increases from 2014 to 2016 could be slightly more than 4%, due to an annual drop in provincial grants of about 10% and the impact of a new contract for OPP policing.
The county expects to receive $4.24 million this year from the province for its operating costs. Federal gas tax revenues are also expected to be off slightly, at about $2.6 million, and interest earnings will also dip slightly to an anticipated $2.4 million.
The earnings are allocated to county reserves which the treasurer said currently sit at about $13 million.
Although it is still unknown what the impact might be on slot revenues from Grand River Raceway as a result of the provincial government’s decision to abandon the program, the treasurer is expecting a revenue reduction of about $350,000.
Councillor Joanne Ross-Zuj said Centre Wellington still hasn’t been informed about what the provincial abandonment of the plan will mean or whether the raceway will remain open.
She expects to meet with Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation [OLG] officials in a couple of weeks. Under the program, Centre Wellington received 5% of slot revenues annually, while the county received about 1%.
The OLG recently issued a second-quarter (July to September 2012) non-tax gaming revenue payment of $573,391 to Centre Wellington.
As announced on March 12, OLG is modernizing Ontario’s lottery and gaming industry. Government officials say the effort will increase revenue for the province and create jobs while continuing to support municipalities through a new consistent funding model for towns and cities that host OLG gaming facilities.
“The existing agreement is gone March 31,” Ross-Zuj told council. “What the world will look like from Grand River Raceway I don’t know. It’s all very much up in the air.”
The slot figure was part of the treasurer’s five-year county plan that was also presented at the meeting.
Council also discussed the upcoming OPP contract. DeHart is calculating the contract will add about $1.6 million to the cost of policing by next year. The annual cost of policing is pegged at slightly more than $16.6 million. As a percentage of the tax revenue raised, it constitutes about 23%, at par with the 23% of tax revenue collected for roads.
DeHart said the new contract, incorporated in the county five-year plan, could see officers receive an 11% salary hike in 2014 after having salaries frozen for the past two years. The five-year contract, which will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2014 could also include the hiring of two new officers.
Councillor Lynda White, the former chairman of the police services board, said negotiations will start once the board receives a “wish list” from the OPP inspector and the province.
“We don’t know what’s coming forward from the province,” she said.
Councillor Jean Innes suggested the board could make a formal request of the OPP not to hire new officers.
Warden Chris White told councillors the meeting was not the place for a discussion on the OPP contract.
“I think we need to be careful that we don’t start negotiating the contract here,” the warden said.
In the five-year plan, DeHart is also expecting the county will pay out $120 million for capital projects during the period. The treasurer is expecting 79% will be funded by the tax levy and from reserves with $5.5 million coming from development charges.
“Only 10% of the capital plan will be funded by debt. The county’s debt levels are very low and manageable,” he said of debt servicing cost of $5.2 million or 6.2% of the county tax levy in the five-year plan.
Council will consider the 2013 budget when it meets at the end of the month.
