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Citizen
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Friday, March 21, 2025
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Volume 41 No. 12
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Budget passed in CH By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen
Time for a cèilidh Monday was St. Patrick’s Day and, as has quickly become tradition, it was a busy weekend for The Lucky Charms, a local band fronted by Blyth’s Joe Gahan, left, which specializes in the music of Ireland. They were in Goderich on Friday night, Seaforth on Saturday night and then in Blyth at The Blyth Inn, above, on Sunday
afternoon, playing to a packed house with the help of twothirds of another local band, Jelly Bean Blue. They had folks, young and old, dancing to tunes like “Whiskey in the Jar”, “Fields of Athenry”, “The Irish Rover” and “Dirty Old Town”, while slowing things down for maximum emotional impact, like a stirring rendition of “Grace”. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
Tax levy increase just over three in NH By Scott Stephenson The Citizen On March 17, North Huron held a mandatory public meeting as one of the last steps in the finalization of its 2025 budget. No members of the public chose to attend the meeting, and council voted to approve the final draft of the budget as it was presented. The first and final drafts of the budget were both prepared by Interim Treasurer Annette Fletcher, who is on loan from the County of Huron until North Huron’s budget process is complete. While council requested very few alterations be made between her first and final drafts, there was one small change: the elimination of $3,000 from the budget that had previously been set aside for the now-defunct Alice Munro Festival of the Short Story. This move has, in turn, reduced the 2025 tax levy increase
from 3.15 per cent to 3.11 per cent. With a tax levy increase of 3.11 per cent, the total amount of projected revenue expected through property taxation is $7,742,348.28, which is $233,423.93 more than 2024. There are 23 capital projects slated to move ahead in 2025, with a total budget of $2,105,413. Of that total, $1,116,300 will be paid through taxation, with the rest coming from grants, government funding, and transfers from reserves. Councillor Chris Palmer raised objections to what he felt was an excessive proposed budget for Economic Development, as well as the expediency with which this year’s budget has been brought about. “I felt rushed with this process,” he explained. “Staff did an excellent job of bringing things together for us to see last month, for our one meeting. Other than that,
we didn’t see anything… I think we should have had a quick clean-up meeting. I think I would have felt a lot better about that.” Palmer also wanted to know why the 2024 actuals were not included in the final budget. Fletcher responded, saying that those numbers are not yet available. “They won’t be finalized until they have gone through the audit process,” she explained. “It was also replicating past practice, where the actuals at that point in time hadn’t been put in… once they’re audited, then we can publish those as well.” Palmer’s primary point was that the proposed budget for Economic Development could have been leaner. “I still feel that something more should have been done,” he lamented. In his opinion, it was the only department that didn’t work to trim the fat for its 2025 budget. “All the other departments really
worked hard at that,” he said. He expressed that part of the problem is the recently-expanded role of the department. “It’s supposed to collect taxes, property assessments… that’s what its function was. That’s why we entered into Economic Development in the first place. Now, I just look at it, and I see its sole purpose seems to be managing projects. And that doesn’t bring in money. That doesn’t bring in taxes, and that’s what our citizens need. So that’s my biggest beef about it.” He also suggested that at least some of the money slated to go to Economic Development would perhaps be better spent in another department, like Asset Management. “It’s a lot of money,” he pointed out. “It’s actually $414,000, when you take the $65,000 of reserves that I don’t feel should be in there. It should be used Continued on page 10
On Monday night, Central Huron passed its 2025 budget, largely unchanged from its last presentation, which includes a tax rate increase for Central Huron purposes of 5.01 per cent, equating to a total tax rate increase of 3.9 per cent, when Huron County and education budgets are included. Treasurer Jeff Boyes made the presentation to council and made note of some small changes he had made to the budget to reach the desired outcome of a 3.9 per cent overall tax rate increase. Those changes include a transfer from the economic development reserve of $40,410.05, a reduction in the transfer to the facilities reserve of $15,000, the removal of a $50,000 contribution to the roads reserve and the deferral of the approach paving to Ball’s Bridge, in the amount of $45,000, to the 2026 budget. The tax rate increase represents $55.91 more in residential taxes per $100,000 of assessment. Almost $38 of that is used by Central Huron, $18.06 for the county and nothing for the school boards, which came in with a zero per cent increase to the levy, which has become the norm in recent years. Of the total taxes being paid by a Central Huron resident on $100,000 of residential assessment, $793.41 is for Central Huron purposes, $541.65 for Huron County and $153 for the school boards. Boyes also provided council with some notes on the budget, including the fact that net transfers from reserves are up in 2025 from 2024 by nearly $700,000 and that the municipal debt is over $1.7 million less than it was last year. He also noted that the surplus is more than $2 million higher than it was in 2024 and that capital grants are nearly $4.5 million higher than they were last year. Total levy requirements for this year’s budget are just under $10 million at $9,923,021. The levy increase is 6.28 per cent and some assessment growth has offset that figure to bring it down to the aforementioned 5.01 per cent increase. Council passed the budget by motion, and then later in the meeting by bylaw, with little more discussion. This comes after council opted out of its final scheduled budget meeting on March 18, figuring council and staff were close enough to a final budget to cancel it.