WELLINGTON – Staff are currently proposing a 4.6 per cent tax-supported levy increase in the 2024 budget.
While changes to the 10-year plan in December increased the tax-supported levy from 4.8 to 5.2 per cent, a new report presented during a special county council budget meeting said staff believes council can reduce it to 4.6 per cent thanks to increased funding from the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care fund and an updated POA revenue forecast from the City of Guelph.
Staff also proposed raising the bagged waste fees by 50 cents this July to increase revenue by $300,000 and reduce the tax-supported levy by 0.2 per cent.
These decisions, as well as additional cuts and deferrals, will be discussed in further detail during committee meetings later this week.
However, county treasurer Ken DeHart clarified that "concrete cuts are preferred over deferrals" because they don't increase the tax levy in future years.
A 4.7 per cent levy increase is currently anticipated for 2025, followed by a 3.8 per cent increase in 2026.
Among the council's ideas to reduce the levy further, some councillors have suggested using the $6 million continuum of care reserve and/or deferring or cancelling the Wellington Pavillion project.
One of three parts on a property tax bill, with the other two portions being from the lower-tier municipality and education, county tax rates have increased by an average of 2.4 per cent annually for 14 years between 2009 and 2022.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
