Despite the effect COVID-19 has had on the economy, the County of Wellington's year-end financial picture is pretty good, the county treasurer told council Friday as initial budget discussions got underway.
County of Wellington council convened together on Friday for a special meeting for its initial budget discussion.
“We’re in the process of working with the departments on what the 10-year capital plan looks like,” said Ken DeHart, county treasurer.
“We are preparing to present a budget to staff and the advisory committee or department team by the end of this month. I don’t have numbers to present today just because of where we are in the process and this is just the initial budget report and discussion.”
DeHart reported that the full impact of the pandemic on the 2022 budget is still unknown at the time.
It’s important to note that due to the pandemic, the average costs of goods and services in the country have been higher than historical trends. In Canada, there was an increase of 4.1 percent; in Ontario, there was an increase of 4 percent; and in Toronto, there was an increase of 3.3 percent.
However, the county has accumulated a surplus between $1.8 and $2.5 million from police services, economic development, Ontario Works, general government, and general revenues or expenses and supplementary taxes.
“That projected surplus is a little higher than historical trends,” he said.
“The provincial and federal governments have been good at providing municipalities with funding to offset the negative impacts of COVID on our operations, which has helped tremendously.
"There are other items in our operations that haven’t been able to operate at full capacity, or there have been delays in hiring processes, etc. that contributes to a larger surplus. We don’t usually see surpluses at the County that we’ve experienced in the last year or two.”
Right now, there is no recommendation that has come forward on what the council will do with the surplus. At this point, the surplus is just a projection; it could be higher or lower based on where council ends up at the end of the year.
“I do want to say that residents can expect a few important projects and priorities in this year’s budget such as implementing the Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Plan, planning for further investment in rural broadband improvements, constructing a new public works facility in Arthur, planning for a new library branch in Erin, investing in roads and bridges and affordable housing,” said DeHart.
As for the tax increase, the council has not been presented with an estimated figure or percentage yet, but the target is around 2 percent.
That target comes from pressures with regard to capital needs like addressing the infrastructure gap, regulations in long-term care that need to be met, climate change initiatives, and addressing cost-level increases of food, fuel, construction prices and staffing.
“I want to ask to look at what is really needed to do as a county. I know that my town and my citizens are faced with fairly large tax bills mainly because of the impact value of their homes,” said Erin mayor Allan Alls.
“It’s constantly escalating; it does help us locally when we go into tax reports because we get revenue that we didn’t anticipate sometimes. But I think we should look at some of our programs where we can keep our tax percent low. To be honest, I don’t even know a number that would work. The county and committees have good projects coming up but we have to figure out which is a priority, so we can come up with a good tax percentage.”
