WELLINGTON NORTH - Council is set to deliberate the second draft 2022 budget with a proposed property tax increase of 2.5 per cent, a significantly less tax increase from the preliminary 2022 budget meeting.
Monday is budget deliberation day for the second draft of the 2022 budget among council with Adam McNabb, director of finance for the township, leading the discussion with his budget presentation.
“Really, the largest difference from the preliminary budget would be the utilization of reserves and reserved funds to fund the capital budget. In a previous reiteration, we had very little in terms of contributions from reserves, which was $594,648,” explained McNabb in an interview.
“Now, it would be just north of $2 million to facilitate the capital program from a levy perspective.”
At the Nov. 22 preliminary budget meeting, McNabb presented a 19.22 per cent property tax increase for 2022. The proposed tax increase was presented as an idea to council, so they can see the end-result of not using the township’s reserves to fund capital projects for 2022.
“If we didn’t use our township reserves, which is ultimately our savings, to fund capital projects, we’d have to use taxpayer dollars and that’s the result of that increase. It would have skyrocketed,” explained McNabb.
“Using our reserves ultimately would reduce the proposed tax increase because it’s leveraging reserve or reserve fund dollars to offset what it would actually be on the residents.”
The capital program is still consistent with the first draft of the budget, with a minor addition of $25,000 for the redesigning of the work yard at Arthur, which totals to a proposed capital projects cost of $15,194,892 for 2022. The majority of it is still coming from the roads and drainage department, totalling up to $6.8 million.
McNabb noted that there’s still opportunities for change to happen with the 2022 budget, especially since the township has received word regarding the additional funding from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund (OCIF).
“We’ve just had additional information which pertains to the OCIF funding for the township which might skew again the funding sources for the capital program, but in terms of the actual levy increase, I believe, this is in line with council’s expectations,” said McNabb.
If the township receives more OCIF funding, it will support the reduced reliance on the township’s existing reserve funds to fund the budget.
“Right now, it’s too early to tell and it opens up opportunities for the council to make decisions regarding utilization of those dollars to fund the 2022 capital program."
