What could have been

Council adds 4 per cent roads levy onto staff-presented flat budget

County taxpayers will have to pay $40.3 million in property taxes in 2020, up from $38.5 million budgeted, but not yet fully spent, in 2019. The tax levy—the amount of the County budget property taxpayers fund—will rise 4.6 per cent, a $1.8 million increase.

Despite the increase, and the implications for affordability in this community, some council members were confident they could justify the increase to residents. “The important message is what we tell our ratepayers, and how we explain it. They will understand we are looking at a close to cost of living increase on their pocketbooks,” said councillor Phil St. Jean.

THE BASICS
Operating expenses are budgeted at $59 million for 2020, up from $54.4 million in 2019. Capital spending is set to shrink from $14.1 million last year to $11.5 million in 2020. This is used for repairs, rehabilitation and reconstruction of things the County owns—assets including roads, bridges and buildings. The 2020 budget includes an investment in road infrastructure through the means of a new capital roads levy of $1.53 million. Council also chose to continue with the levy for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital redevelopment of $372,000.

HOW AND WHY
The County will spend $6.7 million in capital funding on roads in the County this year, including $1.1 million in major underground infrastructure renewal and road reconstruction on Elk Street in Picton, with funding from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund. Design work for the project will take place in 2020 with construction slated for 2021. Much of these developmentdriven capital costs will be recovered through various fees to the developers and builders. $1.1 million will also be spent on the County’s road surface treatment program.

WATERWORKS
Budgeting for waterworks—both operating and capital—is tabulated as a separate business. It is entirely funded by consumers through the water bill and by builders through connection charges, rather than property tax payers.

The County waterworks utility plans to collect $8.6 million to fund operating expenses in 2020, compared with $8.1 million last year, a six per cent hike.

It will spend $16.6 million in capital projects, on a new water tower in Wellington, as well as underground upgrades to run water and sanitary lines down the Millennium Trail. The new tower is needed to enable development in the village— which has been constrained by insufficient water pressure. In total, the 2020 capital budget for waterworks is set at $22.8 million. Water and wastewater rates will not increase as a result of the 2020 budgets, as they will continue to follow the rate schedule set by council in 2017. Ratepayers will likely see a steep increase as the municipality will undertake a study in 2020 for the development of a new rate structure for 2021.

SPECIAL
Council also approved a $1.5 million roads levy on the 2020 tax bill. Councillor Janice Maynard presented the motion, which will see the funds be put into a roads construction reserve for the future. Maynard felt that constituents would understand that the money needs to be put into reserves. “We are talking about how much we are going to put into the roads reserve. There are different ways of looking at it. And when we get caught in percentages, it is never how I have communicated a tax increase. The easy math is how much more am I going to pay than last year,” said Maynard.

CAO Marcia Wallace wanted to be sure that council could explain any increase put forward. “Any decision you make around a roads levy, should be informed by our relative health of reserves. Because this is not money we will spend on roads. This is money we will put in a fund to someday either use as the way we debt finance roads, or construction for roads, all to be determined,” said Wallace. “I would say coming into this, I continue to maintain that the staff recommendation was to not raise the levy this year.” Reconstruction of a County road averages about $300,000 per kilometre. Considering the County has more than 1,100 kilometres of roads—all deteriorating at various rates—it is not clear council has done the arithmetic on how many years of special levies will be needed just to stabilize its road network.

Council also continued with its financial plan to meet the $4.5 million commitment made to the redevelopment of the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital. Last year, staff had recommended that a provision of 0.8 per cent per year for the next 15 years be put on the tax bill toward the hospital redevelopment project. Councillor Jamie Forrester suggested that it be rounded to an even one per cent. This will see $372,000 be set aside from this budget for the build.

TRUCKS AND SUCH
The County will spend close to $1.6 million on vehicles in the 2020 tax year. Last year, council approved a plan to bring some of its winter plow routes in house. This means outfitting the municipality with new trucks. $530,000 will be spent on two new snowplow vehicles to support winter maintenance. The Prince Edward County Fire Department will also purchase a new pumper truck at a cost of $397,000.

OTHER BITS
Council also approved $40,000 per year over the next 10 years to support the Kingston General Hospital redevelopment. Food insecurity is still a priority for council, as it approved $20,000 for food insecurity, with a commitment to reconsider a request to increase this amount to $40,000 in the 2021 budget. Finally, $13,450 in cash and up to $11,840 for in-kind for use of municipal facilities was granted to the County Seniors Centre program as part of The Prince Edward County Community Care for Seniors Association’s Active Living Centres Program. Council did not approve Prince Edward Learning Centre’s request of $35,000 to support the Financial Empowerment Program, but instead, instructed the organization to apply for a community grant.

Mayor Steve Ferguson was happy with this year’s budget process. “From sitting through previous budgets, this has been something of a game-changer in terms of its presentation and clarity,” said Ferguson, sending a strong nod to staff and new CAO Marcia Wallace. “With the 2020 budget, we aimed to find operational savings without impacting service delivery. We are in a position to make strategic investments in our capital reserves while we continue to offer high quality service to residents and businesses.”