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Mono Council approves budget, calls for 1.8 percent tax increase

November 10, 2016   ·   0 Comments

With election night in the U.S. fascinating the general populace, Mono Council met Tuesday evening to ponder the allocation of the town’s finances and program planning for 2017.

After clearing the agenda of a few regular items and adopting a motion supporting a FIT 5 Proposal for the installation of solar panels on the roof of an Orangeville Agricultural Society building at the fairgrounds, council devoted the remainder of the meeting to the proposed 2017 budget.

In the absence of CAO Mark Early, Treasurer Les J. Halucha presented the proposed draft budget for council’s consideration.

Tuesday’s meeting will be followed by a finalized budget presentation on November 22 and passage of the Budget Bylaw on December 13. In between, the public will be invited to share their input on the governance of the town, at a special Townhall meeting this coming Saturday, November 12, at Monora Park pavilion.

The expenditures for the town were broken down into their component parts for ease of understanding, with transportation, roads maintenance and related needs, taking the lion’s share of the budget at 53%. Protection services, policing and fire amounted to 19% and General Government took 13%. Recreation required 8% while the Environment and Planning factored in at 2% and 5% respectively.

It was noted that growth in the town outstripped inflation dramatically in 2016. However the projection for 2017 indicated that growth was expected to be just 2% versus an inflation rate of 1.7% .

It was noted that policing costs would increase in 2017 due to a wage increase for OPP officers, but fire costs are expected to be lower next year. It was also pointed out that since the adoption of charging for repetitive false alarms, the number of false alarms has dropped noticeably since 2013.

Several options were offered Council to offset the increase for inflation in the budget. To keep the increase at the proposed 1.7%, Council would need to cut $140,665 from the budget, or alternatively could accept  an increase of 2% in spending that would add $20,674 to the tax levy and require cutting only $119,991 from the 2017 Budget. The final option was to add the total $140,665 to the budget, which would add 2% to the tax increase for a total increase of 3.7% in 2017.

With this in mind, Council turned to reviewing the entire budget proposal, clause by clause, with input from the heads of each department.

Projected total expenditures for 2017 were $11,885,560 against total revenues of $11,744,895, leaving the noted shortfall of $140,665 to be dealt with.

Public Works Director Michael Dunmore, whose department is responsible for most of the expenditures in the budget, brought to note several increases to his budget resulting from breakdowns of machinery that were reaching the end of their useable life. However, by eliminating an unused reserve for one project and using it cover the costs of three others, council was able to trim $90,000 from his projections.

Recreation Director Kim Perryman began her explanations with a look at the many needed increases for repairs and training and new programs in her department, which accounted for a large portion of her budget requests. Things such as the launching of a new hiking trail and the automating of the washroom at Mono Centre Park came under council scrutiny.

While discussing parks improvements, Mayor Laura Ryan asked that Recreation look at having some mature trees planted at Lloyd Armstrong Park, as there was virtually no shade beyond the pavilion. Mike Dunmore then suggested that perhaps that could be arranged, from existing sources in Mono and not require the purchasing of mature trees and so forego a further budget request.

The evening drew to a close with a resolution by council to adopt the Budget Proposal, as amended, with only a 1.8% inflation increase for 2017. The motion was carried and Council adjourned until the November 22 meeting.

Written By PETER RICHARDSON

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