Harder numbers

Corrected and updated information alter budget picture

The County’s finance’s are in tough shape—but, perhaps, not quite as tough as was reported last week in the Times. Some reporting errors (ours, see correction below) combined with some decisions (council’s) to begin trimming the budget early, alter the magnitude of the challenge—if not the fact that taxpayers may yet be asked to pay more and get less in 2012 for their municipal taxes. We’ll start with the bottom line. The tax levy as proposed currently is $28.0 million—up from $24.5 million paid by County taxpayers last year, an increase of 14.3 per cent. After adding growth in the tax base from residential and commercial development, the proposed tax levy increase shrinks to 12.6 per cent. A surplus from last year’s budget as well should shave a bit more off the tax burden. For the average household (considered to be valued at $240,000) the impact of the current proposed budget would add $247 to their tax bill. These are still early days in the budget process; much is likely to change before it is adopted in early May. Already council has whittled away at the list, eliminating $563,354 worth of items needing attention but not recommended by staff due to the already considerable increases contained in the budget. Council trimmed a further $276,050 from additions staff had recommended—opting, for now, to limit additions to the operating budget to a list totalling $492,683. The trend remains poor however. If this budget were proposed as it stands now (still very much an open question) it translates into a 6.5 per cent average increase to the tax levy over the past five years. This means that unless your income has risen by at least 6.5 per cent per year over this period—your property taxes are eating more of your disposable income each year. Given that the County’s population remains largely unchanged in the past decade, the tax burden is not being dispersed across a growing number of ratepayers. This suggests that the County’s population is changing from those who can afford to live here and pay the rising taxes and those forced to leave the County and live somewhere more affordable. That signals a transformation of the County likely few bargained for when amalgamation was thrust on this community.

Correction

The total tax levy as proposed in the first draft of the municipality’s 2012 budget was $28,930,840—reflecting a potential increase of nearly 18 per cent over last year’s levy. Incorrect figures were quoted and presented in last week’s Page 3 story on the budget. We muddled rather than clarified information our readers should know. The Times regrets these errors.