UPDATE: Centre Wellington indicates a 2.4 per cent tax increase would represent an additional $27 per year ($2.25 per month) in property taxation for the average household in the township.
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Planning for Centre Wellington’s 2022 budget has begun. At a Monday committee of the whole meeting, council directed staff to include a tax increase of 2.4 per cent or less in the upcoming draft budget.
Monday’s budget meeting is the first in a series scheduled to take place over the next six months. A final version of the township’s financial blueprint is expected to be approved by council in December.
Centre Wellington’s treasurer and managing director of corporate services, Dan Wilson told council, as of January, the blended inflation factor, which takes into consideration a number of different price indexes, is 3.2 per cent.
“So that’s suggesting from a year ago, costs are now 3.2 per cent blended higher,” he said.
For comparison, Wilson said during last year’s budget deliberations - when council approved a 1.3 per cent tax increase - the inflation factor was only 1.07 per cent.
Several councillors said inflation due to COVID-related disruptions in the supply chain could actually be much higher and Wilson noted the inflation factor is expected to change.
“The numbers we’re presenting to council today could be low based on what we could see in the next number of months,” he said.
He gave council three suggested options for a proposed tax increase to build a draft budget around: 3.2 per cent, 2.4 per cent or 2 per cent.
“I would start with 2.4,” Coun. Steven VanLeeuwen said, “and as we continue to go through the year, I know that we’ve been flexible enough … to kind of dodge and move as we see things change.”
He noted the township still had time to “pivot” if needed before the budget and the tax increase are approved in December.
Meanwhile Coun. Bob Foster said he wanted to see a zero per cent tax increase, saying “our people are suffering” due to the pandemic.
“You cannot use a temporary blip in inflation to increase taxes, so I speak against the motion of 2.4 that’s not good enough.” he said. “Inflation is clearly temporary,”
But Mayor Kelly Linton said the township could fall behind on asset management if the increase was too low.“We have real asset management challenges, we also have to balance with people’s ability to pay and that’s what make our job so difficult," Linton said. "We can’t just think about one of those areas because if we’re out of balance we’re going to have a real hard time providing really good government here.”
Council voted 5-2 to have staff prepare a draft budget with a 2.4 per cent tax increase.
Those in favour were: Councillors Ian MacRae, Kirk McElwain, Neil Dunsmore, VanLeeuwen and Linton. Those opposed were Councillors Stephen Kitras and Foster.
