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Policing takes largest bite out of Orangeville’s 2025 budget

December 5, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

The greatest factor bloating Orangeville’s budget next year is policing costs.

That’s a song long heard by the town’s taxpayers and one of the reasons the former Orangeville Police Service was scuttled in favour of the OPP.

The current draft of the 2025 municipal operating and capital budget has a 6.6 per cent increase over this year. Almost four per cent of that is due to policing costs.

One per cent tax levy increase means an extra $33.81 on a resident’s average property tax bill. That’s a pack of cigarettes and a box of your favourite brew less than you enjoyed in 2024.

Nick Garisto asked council during its Dec. 2 meeting about the OPP service contract.

Orangeville Mayor Lisa Post said such details would be spoken about later in the meeting during a discussion about the 2025 municipal capital and operating budget.

“The reason I’m asking is I hear there was tremendous increases with the OPP,” Garisto said. “I feel sorry that we got rid of the Orangeville Police (Service) and brought the OPP.”

The town transitioned from its former Orangeville Police Service and hired the provincial police force in October 2020. One of the main reasons for the change in service was to save money on the cost of policing the municipality.

The draft budget stipulates that the $6.1 million OPP costs are still lower than what the former OPS would have cost taxpayers. Adjusting for tax increases since the transition in 2020, the former police service’s levy requirement would have been about $9.5 million a year, according to town documents.

The OPP costs from 2021-2023 were billed under a transitional model. The formal billing model was implemented this year, said Cheryl Braan, the town’s treasurer.

The bill for 2024 included a $705,000 credit that needs to be added back in the 2025 budget. Another engine that’s driving costs is the force’s new collective agreement with increases of 4.75 per cent for 2023, 4.5 per cent for this year, and 2.75 per cent for each of 2025 and the following year.

The 2025 billing reflects a means to catch up for prior year estimates and next year’s increase.

There are three options to consider regarding the OPP budget for next year.

The first would be to approve the police budget as presented. That would yield a 6.6 per cent tax levy increase, including the police services, or a 7.1 per cent total levy increase.

The total values do not incorporate the levies for Dufferin County and education taxes.

The second option is to reduce the property tax levy for policing services by the one-time relief of $1.05 million given by the provincial government. That would mean a 4.6 per cent total levy increase next year. But that would mean adding those dollars to the 2026 budget which would be an increase of about 2.4 per cent for just that item.

The third option for council to consider is to apportion the temporary relief between a one-time levy savings and a one-time contribution from capital reserve funds. That would offer a 5.9 per cent total levy increase or a 5.32 per cent tax increase for Orangeville’s homeowners.

David Smith, the town’s CAO, said the municipality has come a long way over the last year. Senior management has been solidified, key staff positions have been filled, and a new path forward has been chartered, he said.

“It’s an exciting time in Orangeville and 2025 is looking even brighter,” Smith said. “The familiar push and pull during budget (deliberations) between wants and needs is almost non-existent this year, purposely so.”

He said there’s been a focus on the town’s needs and shoring up its core services.

“We have ground to make up and our budget is focused on that,” he said.

Smith characterized the budget as being reasonable, responsible, and respectful to the taxpayer and of staff who try to deliver on their responsibilities.

The overall increase proposed is lower than most of Orangeville’s municipal colleagues, he said.

“As it was last year,” Smith said.

It was difficult to approve many requests for increases in services, he said. But you need to be able to afford them before those services can be approved.

Braan said no decisions were required to be made about the proposed budget draft yet. The presentation was merely a high-level overview of next year’s spending possibilities.

It’s hoped the 2025 municipal operating and capital budget will be finalized later this month.

Even without the OPP contract, there are a number of pressures that squeeze the budget process. Escalation in capital costs and inflation, infrastructure that’s nearing the end of its usefulness, required changes in services, external government funding levels, and a low assessment growth in Orangeville.

“In order to be financially sustainable in the long run, particular attention should be paid to future debt levels,” Braan said.

The projected debt for the capital program shows about a $62 million debt over the next five years, she said.

“Staff will be working on some debt management policies as part of the integrated long-term financial plan in 2025,” she said. “This work will help us put some guidelines in place to ensure the town’s able to manage debt level strategically over the long term.”

Councillor Joe Andrews called to task the “armchair accountants” in the community, the budget critics who take potshots at council by way of critical and frustrating emails and phone calls.

“We’re here to defend what this municipality is all about,” he said. “I would have hoped that we would have had a full gallery here tonight, despite the regulars that come here.

“The issue is that we have individuals that are really good at barking but they have no bite to any of their comments. And I wish they would have taken a look at your (Braan’s) budget 101 presentation because it was very well-presented.”

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) hasn’t updated assessment values since 2016. It’s supposed to be done province-wide every four years by MPAC. In effect, municipalities throughout Ontario have been trying to determine current budgets using MPAC’s property assessment values from 2016, despite how much costs have increased with the times.

Andrews asked Braan if there has been any indication from the province when property re-assessments will happen.

Braan said there’s been no word on the next re-assessment.

“Absolutely none,” she said.

“Just wanting to make sure that our general public knows,” Andrews said. “Because these are the pressure points that we have for a municipality.”

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