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Jeff Green | May 25, 2006

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SouthFrontenac budget set for 2006

by Jeff Green

The complicated budgeting process has been completed in South Frontenac for another year, and it has resulted in an increase in the levy to taxpayers of 3.83%. The township will be collecting $8,745,227 from taxpayers in order to keep the township operating, as compared to $8,423,022 in 2005.

“The township has to pay more for heating and to put fuel in vehicles just like everyone else does,” said Treasurer Deborah Bracken in accounting for the budget increase.

The budget for the township as a whole increased substantially this year, while the budgets for each of the individual districts in South Frontenac decreased, but this was mainly the result of establishing a central fire department, and transferring all fire costs from the district budgets to the township budget.

An increase in the Frontenac County budget will also affect the tax bills that residents will be receiving in the next couple of weeks, but the most telling factor will be their own property assessment.

Ratepayers in Bedford District, who have had their property assessments increased by an average of over 26% as the result of property reassessment last fall, will see an average increase of 7% in their 2006 taxes. In Loughborough, where the average property has seen an increased assessment of 19.44%, the average tax bill will only be increased by 1%. For ratepayers in Portland , where the average property has had its assessment increased by 16.83%, the average tax bill will be 2.3% higher.

Even with the increase, Bedford residents still pay the lowest taxes in the township. In 2006, a house in Bedford that is valued at $150,000 will pay $1,636, as compared to $1,724 for a house of the same value in Loughborough; in Portland the tax bill would be $1,697.

However, Bedford residents do not have garbage and recycling pickup, for which residents in the other two districts pay an extra fee.

As is the case in all of the local townships, the massive property assessment increases received by waterfront property owners this year will translate into a large tax increase, while those (mainly non-waterfront dwellers) who received little or no assessment increase will see their taxes drop a fair bit this year.

Beleaguered taxpayers in South Frontenac might take some solace in the fact that they would be facing higher taxes if they lived in a different township. The tax rate for all property owners in South Frontenac remains lower than the rate in Central Frontenac by at least 20%.