South Frontenac Trims Capital Spending to Cap Tax Increase
South Frontenac Council and Staff made every effort to carry out the same budget process as they have in recent years, even with the new strong mayor budgeting rules in place.
The scheduled all-day budget meeting last week featured departmental presentations that took up about an hour and a half. These were followed by a relatively short discussion about the details of the operating budget, and changes that had been made to the capital budget that had been presented to Council in December of last year.
But when it came time to approve the final document, that was where the new rules caused a bit of confusion.
“Unless there are amendments being proposed out of this meeting, the budget does not need to go back to another council meeting to be approved,” said Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Louise Fragnito.
“Do we just need a motion to approve it, asked Mayor Ron Vandewal.
“No,” said Fragnito. “If there are no amendments, it is approved as presented.”
“So, just a motion to adjourn?”
With that, a budget that will cumulatively cost South Frontenac residents $1.1 million more in taxes in 2026 than 2025, up 4.6%, offset by 1.06% in assessment growth to bring the budget impact to a $3.5% increase, has been adopted.
But reaching that target has not been easy, and South Frontenac, like its neighbours to the north, has found itself deferring infrastructure projects in order to keep the budget increase from being higher.
The largest of those projects to be deferred was the Rutledge Road reconstruction project, a $4.6 million decrease in the capital budget. The net decrease in the capital budget that was presented in December was lower than that, however, at $2.83 million.
That was because a bridge project was added to the budget. The Bedford Mills bridge will be rehabilitated this year, at a cost of $1.5 million.
Director of Public Services Kyle Bolton said that the Bedford Mills bridge, which is located on Perth Road, close to the South Frontenac border with Rideau Lakes Township, is the 4th most expensive bridge in the township.
It was built in the early 1960's, and rehabilitated in 1997. The work that needs to be done now could wait for a year or two, but it needs to be done soon, and the “cost will only go up if we wait until it has to be done,” said Bolton.
“The reality is that if roadwork is put off, the road will not fail or become impassable, but a bridge can fail, and that is why road work can be put off more easily than bridge work,” he said.
The increases in operating costs that led to staff re-visiting the capital budgets came about because actual costs were much higher than the Consumer Price Index of just over 2% this year. A $665,000 increase in staff complement annual adjustments, as well as a $582,000 increase in solid waste management, and a $335,000 increase in OPP billing, led the way. Adding these increases to a number of smaller ones, along with a $511,000 increase in payments to the asset management reserve, which was a long range decision the township made several years ago, all led to a $2.8 million increase in operating expenses that needed to be addressed.
Investment revenue, and growth, both came in at lower levels than anticipated, all leading to a budget that would have resulted in an 11% tax increase if cuts were not made to the capital budget.
Mayor Ron Vanewal indicated that a 3.5% tax rate increase is something that residents can look at as a baseline going forward, and could easily go up from there.
“The days of 2% increases are over,” he said, “going forward we can expect to see increases like this one and more. In municipal budgeting we are always kicking things to the future, and the costs keep coming.
Directing his remarks at Treasurer Stephanie Kuca, Councillor Ray Leonard summed up the sentiments of the rest of Council: “Thank you, you did a pile of work and I think we've got the right number.”
