South Frontenac Council - Nov. 22/11

Wilma Kenny | Nov 24, 2011

South Frontenac Council convened with coffee and doughnuts last Saturday morning, to work through their 2012 draft budget.

CAO Wayne Orr opened proceedings with a brief review of the factors that contribute to determining the final tax rate. The township’s tax base has increased 8.2%, due largely to development and phased-in assessment increases.

The clerk’s report addressed several items that Council had directed should be included in the preliminary budget for consideration. None of these directions were to be construed as a financial commitment. They were:

Inflation, which affects wages, benefits, insurance, fuel, heat and hydro.Roads construction: an increase of $250,000 in planned construction (total roads budget $6,165,653.)Introduction of a 1% Asset Investment Reserve ($114,149).Creation of new position to manage solid waste and township facilities, as recommended by the Corporate Services Committee. Police Services Board: $5,000 to publish a community report.Grant of $3,000 to Southern Frontenac Community Services to support their increased program costs. (Council cannot legally waive property taxes on Grace Centre.)

These additional items total $613,847. However, savings were achieved in other areas of the budget. The overall budget for general government - the treasury and clerk’s office - is down from last year by $159,290, helping offset increased expenses in other areas. In summary, the draft budget showed an increase over last year’s budget of $606,316, or 5.55%.

Also, in order to develop the budget, staff made assumptions in the following three areas:

Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund: the township’s share will be determined by the province in the new year, but based on patterns to date, staff have predicted police funding will be reduced by $63,900.OPP Budget: although there will be no salary increase this year, the staff sergeant has confirmed that the new contract will include a change in the formula for policing costs that will likely result in a 10-15% increase. $75,000 was added as a reserve to the police budget to help toward this jump.County Gas Tax Funds: in 2011, the township received $293,869 from the county, and staff has assumed this level of funding will continue in 2012.

Council then reviewed the budget page by page. Some of the details:

In discussion of the County gas tax funds, Councilor Vandewal suggested it might be prudent to project a lower amount, perhaps $100,000. Councilors Stowe, Naish and McPhail agreed.

The $5,000 for the police board’s publication was taken from reserves.

A review of the building department’s budget underlined the need to hire a third building inspector as soon as possible, in order to be more prompt with inspections and occupancy permits.

Councilor Robinson said that the Colebrooke Road in Harrowsmith needed a sidewalk for the safety of children walking to school. This raised discussion of the three-year roads plan, and concerns about ‘micromanaging’.

Mayor Davison suggested this issue be carried over to Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole, when the public works manager could be present.

The township presently has a set $100 waste management fee on the tax bill for all properties, regardless of assessment. CAO Wayne Orr recommended this be moved into the overall tax bill, pointing out that a fixed charge is regressive, for it is proportionally higher for those with lower taxes. As well, it does not accurately reflect the actual cost of waste management.

Council rejected this suggestion, discussing instead whether the charge should be raised by $10.

When Council asked why income from user charges was so low in the recreation budget, it was noted that fees for various facilities were inconsistent across the township, and one facility (the football field) was used by a private program that paid no user fees.

Deputy Mayor Tinlin asked why Bedford was budgeted so much less than the other districts for Canada Day. Mayor Davison replied that that was the amount requested by the Bedford Recreation Committee.

Last year’s budget put $275,000 into asset/infrastructure reserves: the 2012 proposed budget does not. Councilor Vandewal expressed concern that Council was drawing a lot more from reserves than they were aware of.

“Infrastructure needs are huge,” he said, pointing out that community halls and fire halls are deteriorating.

By the end of the morning, after making some cuts to the budget, and basing their estimates on the assumption that county gas tax contribution will drop to $60,00 this year and that $275,000 will be added to reserve funds, the local tax increase would come to 2.2%.

Some on council felt that an increase as high as 3% would be acceptable.

Council members then went to Visionsoup for lunch, before returning to make the following decisions:

They would meet Tuesday night to further review the road budget with Public Works Manager Mark Segsworth. (This was done, with Segsworth giving details as to how roadwork priorities were established. He agreed that safety improvements along Colebrooke Road could be done next year.)

They passed a motion to receive the preliminary 2012 budget for information.

Next week at their regular meeting, Council will receive a full report on the state of the township reserves from the Corporate Services Committee, along with the committee’s recommendations for managing the reserves, before finalizing the budget.

Passing the overall budget will have to wait until the township learns how much South Frontenac ratepayers will have to pay in Education and Frontenac County taxes, but this will be the first time in the history of South Frontenac Township that council will have completed their budget work before the start of the year they are budgeting for.