MINTO ‒ The lowest in the county, Minto council is supporting a proposed tax increase of 1.74 per cent, or $9.33 per $100,000 of assessment in the 2024 budget.
Minto had a 4.88 per cent increase in 2023.
This doesn't include the county portion of any tax increase.
"We're into some lean years, I know it's a lean budget (and) we're doing what we can do," said Mayor Dave Turton, during a special budget meeting earlier this week. "(But) unless we get a windfall or something...we'll likely have a few lean years."
Specific projects weren't identified.
According to interim CAO Mark Potter, the township is seeing "increasing capital project backlog" despite making significant investments in its annual capital program, resulting in some projects being deferred to future years.
Capital projects are estimated at just over $3.7 million in 2024 and $31,279,100 over the 10-year forecast although staff said replacing all current assets will cost approximately $415 million.
"The town strives to keep its assets in good repair. Unfortunately, the annual capital requests from departments exceed the funding available," said Potter, during the meeting. "There is a balance between maintaining healthy reserves and funding of asset repair and replacement."
Coun. Geoff Gunson, Ron Elliott, and Paul Zimmerman were absent from the meeting.
A budget open house is scheduled for December 5 with a budget bylaw coming to council on December 19.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
