www.ngtimes.ca
Vol. 3, No. 3
The Voice of North Grenville
January 21, 2015
Tax increases inevitable
The North Grenville Times is Locally Owned and Operated by David Shanahan While there is no financial crisis facing North Grenville, it appears from recent budget meetings at the Municipal Centre that chickens are on the horizon on the way home to roost. Chief Administrative Officer, Brian CarrĂŠ, has told council in no uncertain fashion that the municipality needs to find more money to pay the bills. At a minimum, homeowners in North Grenville will face a 2% increase in their taxes in each of the next ten years. That amounts to a cumulative increase of at least 22% by 2024. If your municipal taxes in 2014 were
$1,500, you can expect to pay a minimum of $1,829 in 2024. Similarly, a 2014 tax bill of $3,000 will increase to $3,657 within a decade. However, if the eventual increase is, for example, 4%, then the cumulative increase will be in the order of around 50%. The problem seems to be, put simply, that growth is not paying for growth, and has not been for some time, in spite of assurances both before and during the recent election. There has been a dramatic fall-off in the subsidies paid to municipalities by the Ontario Government; but this has been expected and should not be a surprise
to anyone. Although operating costs for some municipal services have decreased over the past five years, including waste management services, by-law services and policing (thanks to the recent renegotiation of OPP contracts provincially), other areas have seen increases. Of these, some have been unavoidable, or due to improvements in assets and facilities, such as with the Fire Service. Ironically, economic development costs rose by about 33% in the past five years, and the cost of the Planning Department rose by about the same in that period. One of the biggest increases in operating costs has been in
Library Services, which rose by about 70%. The problem seems to have been made worse because council has been using Development Charge revenues to pay for operating and maintenance of infrastructure instead of raising taxes to cover the increased expenses, which resulted in under funding of capital programs. In fact, between 2009 and 2012, council actually cut taxes by a total of almost 18%. Brian CarrĂŠ hopes to have definitive figures before council as soon as possible, so they can begin making concrete decisions for the coming tax year.
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