Archive

County’s 2018 budget to keep tax hike under 2 percent

October 27, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Mike Pickford

Dufferin Treasurer Alan Selby gave County Council an early insight into its 2018 budget last Thursday (Oct. 12), with initial estimates calling for a slight increase for taxpayers.

In what was the first draft of the 2018 budget, Mr. Selby revealed the County was “on track” with plans to close its infrastructure gap, while an ongoing effort to promote fiscal responsibility will likely result in a relatively minor $29 increase per household on the county portion of tax bills next year.

“We’re expecting our increase for our taxpayers to be right in the ball park of what we had in 2017,” Mr. Selby said. “It was around 1.7 percent then, so we’re thinking, if we pencil growth in at around 2 percent, then the impact to the average taxpayer will be under 2 percent, just like it was this year.”

The County’s operating budget is tentatively set at $29.45 million, up close to $500,000 from last year’s $28.98 million. With a $7.7 million capital budget to boot, up from $6.8 million in 2017, the municipality is looking at a total tax levy of $37.2 million and an overall budget increase of $1.4 million.

Mr. Selby noted the big factors that contributed to the bloated operating budget were out of the municipality’s hands, with an increased cost in employee benefit packages set to start in April 2018 and Bill 148, otherwise known as the ‘minimum wage bill’, expected to take effect.

Particularly pleasing for members of Council is the increased spending on the capital side, with several key projects pencilled in for 2018. Just over $4 million has been set aside for road and miscellaneous public works projects, with $2.45 million earmarked for numerous structure projects. The “significant” capital increase for 2018 falls right in line with the municipality’s strategic plan, according to Mr. Selby.

“We’ve been attempting, each year, to close our infrastructure gap by raising our capital contribution annually. We’ve been doing this for several years now and we’re really starting to see some results,” Mr. Selby said. “It’s a real credit to this Council. We have gone a long way into closing what was a sizeable gap.”

County Warden Darren White was pleased with what he saw in the presentation, commending Mr. Selby and his staff for coming up with such a “friendly” tentative tax increase for rate payers.

“1.9 percent for a start position on the budget is absolutely fantastic, that definitely makes our job a little easier, a lot less stressful,” Warden White said. “We have our committee meetings this month, so we’ll all be talking about the budget then.”

Any proposed changes to the budget bill be presented and considered by Council at its next regular meeting, taking place on Nov. 15. To view the County’s draft budget, visit dufferincounty.ca/files and search ‘Budget 2018’.

Readers Comments (0)