Council adds 1% to budget for new projects

Jeff Green | Nov 01, 2017

4% increase likely in Frontenac County budget – offset by 1% in growth

Frontenac County Council said yes to most of the requests for funding it received as part of its 2018 budget deliberations. Fortunately for Frontenac County ratepayers, a lot of the requests came from service areas that are shared with the City of Kingston. For example, the cost of a new 11pm -7am Personal Support Worker Shift at Fairmount Home, a 1.4 FSE (Full time staff equivalent) is $91,147 with benefits, but Frontenac County ratepayers will only pay $29,167 and City of Kingston ratepayers will cover the rest because of a cost sharing agreement for the home. Similarly, a Human Resources generalist position that is being created will cost $87,815 for salary and benefits, but only $27,339 is being charged to county residents. A $45,000 parking lot improvement project at the Fairmount Home/County office complex will similarly cost county ratepayers $14,400 with Kingston covering the rest.

The major exception, in terms of cost, is the proposal for a $35,000 levy contribution to the Economic Development Reserve Fund, and a commitment to increase that reserve by $35,000 each year for the next five years, in order to bring the department into a stronger long term position with an annual budget that is $170,000 higher than 2016 levels by 2023.

Although this proposal will lead to a greater increase in taxation than any of the other proposals in front of Council, it was well received and enthusiastically approved. Much of that enthusiasm can be attributed to the successful implementation of the new Frontenac brand and the brand ambassador program.
“I’ve been involved in municipal politics for 30 years and for the first time people are coming up to me at church and asking about how they can get involved in a Frontenac County program. They are now relating to the county as something that can do something for us,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith.
“I don’t think that my township is going to set up an economic development department on its own,” said Ron Vandewal of South Frontenac. “We rely on the county for this. Even if it costs us more in the future, it is still cheaper than doing it on our own.”
All told the projects listed above will increase the county levy by 0.91%.

External requests
Council also considered a number of external requests. The largest of these was a request from the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation for a $200,000 annual donation. Council opted instead for a $55,061 annual donation. Because the County has been making a donation of $54,000 each year for ten years, and even though the ten year commitment was over with, the expenditure is already included in the budget, so only the increase was included for the purpose of budget deliberations last week, even though all decisions will be subject to a further consideration of the entire budget on November 15.
Still, council members took divergent views towards the request.

John Inglis from North Frontenac said that he took the presentation by the hospital foundation, which took place in September, “at face value, and I support making a $200,000 donation.”
On the other side of the coin, South Frontenac Mayor (and current County Warden) Ron Vandewal said “I really struggle when you start spending money outside of your mandate”.
North Frontenac Mayor (and current Deputy Warden) Ron Higgins said “This is basically a donation. Is it in our job to do donations? I can’t justify it.”
Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith took the middle ground.

“I do believe we have to give them something,” she said, “but we struggle to pay our own staff. I can’t see a jump like they are looking for.”
Gradually the status quo expenditure of $55,061 seemed to gain favour.
“I’ve got no problem doing what we are already doing, because it is in our budget,” said Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle.
By a show of hands $55,061 donation was remained in the budget (see editorial)

A smaller donation, $6,000 towards a scholarship program for children in foster care, was also approved, but a $10,000 request for an incentive program for recording artists was referred to the Community Development Advisory Committee.
The final discussion centered around a set of requests from Frontenac Transportation Services (FTS) for an increase to the $96,000 that the county already contributes. The not for profit service is led by Rural Frontenac Community Services, in partnership with Southern Frontenac Community Services.
Because of change in ridership over the last 18 months or so, a decrease in third party funded rides by agencies such as Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Supports Program, and an increase in rides for seniors, FTS has moved from a modest surplus standing, to a deficit. To deal with their financial issues, they asked the county for a $20,000 increase in the annual support payment, a $10,000 one time payment to cover the 2017 deficit, $5,000 for a fund to subsidise rides for low income seniors, and $10,000 to undertake a pilot project to develop an accessible service in response to a request from the Frontenac County Accessiblity Committee.

Dennis Doyle was un-moved by the requests.

“I think we give them enough already,” he said, but his view did not prevail.
“I can’t see putting another $20,000 on the levy without seeing a business case from them that tells us how they are going to deal with the reality they are facing on the ground,” said Ron Vandewal.
In the end Vandewal’s position held sway. Council agreed to provide an extra $20,000 in 2018 as a one time payment, taken from a $100,000 senior’s transportation reserve fund, and to fund the $10,000 pilot from the same fund, which will be cut to $70,000 by the end of the year.
“They can come to Council next year with a business plan and the new council can decide if they want to do a permanent increase in funding,” said Vandewal.
Because reserve funds were used, the FTS increase will not impact the levy, and the impact from all the requests from outside sources was only $7,061, the net impact of all the project proposals debated by the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday and Thursday of last week is an increase of a shade under 1% on the overall levy.

County Treasurer Susan Brant told the news last week that the operating budget she has prepared will include an increase inline with the annualised Consumer Price Index for August (1.5%) and a commitment to a 0.65% increase for an infrastructure reserve, which are both mandated by Council.
With the increases from last week, that 3.15% budget increase is likely. Brant also indicated that, as was done last year, another increase of up to 1% will likely be included in the budget. This will be offset by property assessment growth in the county that will be identified by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation when they deliver their annual assessment report for Frontenac County.

In all, the budget that Council will see on November 20 will include an increase in the range of 4% in the overall levy to county ratepayers.

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