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Kincardine okays budget with 7.87% increase By Liz Dadson |
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After an excessive amount of discussion, Kincardine council has finally given the green light to the 2010 budget with a 7.87-per-cent increase in taxes. In committee-of-the-whole last night (April 14), chief administrative officer John deRosenroll brought a recommendation from the department heads which showed six cuts to be made in order to make up for the shortfall of $196,000. That money was lost through a complicated process in which a lower education tax resulted in fewer dollars retained from the education portion of the Bruce Nuclear site assessment - given to the municipality as payment-in-lieu of taxes. Compounding that shortfall was $16,000 less in the Westario Power investment due to increased expenses at the utility - which brought the total shortfall to $212,000. In his report, deRosenroll suggested the following ways to cutback that $212,000:
In addition, deRosenroll suggested council consider a budget bylaw at the next meeting (April 21) to get this year's budget completed before planning begins for the 2011 budget. A special meeting is slated for May 26, he said, dedicated to the financial health of the municipality. At that meeting, council will focus on: the service levels it is prepared to provide to the public; past spending practices of the capital program and comparison to nearby municipalities, such as Saugeen Shores; a review of the trends of using reserves and reserve funds and the sustainability of this; the relative position Kincardine should maintain with respect to its tax rate; a look at whether thee municipality has surplus municipal assets and what value they have to the community. Councillor Randy Roppel said he is concerned that the sidewalk project in Tiverton may come in over the $100,000 left in the budget. If the tenders come in at $130,000 (the original amount in the budget), the public works manager will be back to council to discuss it, said deRosenroll. Councillor Mike Leggett is concerned that the municipality is taking on too many capital projects without the money to pay for them. "We have to bear in mind that these are not needs or wants in our municipality," he said, referring to the new gymnasium at the Davidson Centre and the refurbishment of the Kincardine Arts Centre (old town hall). "These are going to have major impacts on taxes this year and in years to come," he said. "We'll need more staff and increased hydro and maintenance for the Davidson Centre gym, so taxes will have to up again next year and the year after that and so on. Sure, we got two-thirds funding (from the provincial and federal governments), but we have to be able to afford our one-third." He took exception to the arts centre which is going to cost the taxpayers more and more each year in upkeep, even after the outside is fixed up. "We should look at whether we need to hire as many students as we have been," said Leggett. "There's a position in treasury that we don't need at this time. We could look at layoffs. Don't let fear of common sense stop you." Deputy mayor Laura Haight disagreed about the new gym, saying it is a need as dictated by the public. She is more concerned that council is dwelling on what capital projects to cut, rather than looking at the operating expenses and getting them under control.
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Leggett said the municipality allowed one addition to the Davidson Centre, and now it's putting on another, but it's still an old building with increased operating costs. "We should have agreed to build a new recreation centre and put the money away for that," he said. Councillor Guy Anderson said the Davidson Centre is in relatively good shape, with new boilers installed two years ago, and the building retrofitted so it is as energy efficient as it can be. "It would cost $40-million to build a new recreation centre," he said. "This addition is only $3-million. If we scrapped it now, we would still have to pay the architectural fees - 100 per cent of them, without two-thirds funding." Councillor Marsha Leggett questioned how many people in the municipality actually benefit from the arts centre. Mayor Larry Kraemer said there are five groups that have offices in the building: the Woodturners Guild, Victoria Park Art Gallery, Kincardine Theatre Guild, Bluewater Summer Playhouse and Kincardine Scottish Festival. He then offered a history lesson, dating back to before amalgamation when an agreement was first made to put $1-million in a reserve for a new arts facility which was supposed to be built with a new town hall. However, that project was scrapped. Kraemer said the money came primarily from Ward 1 (former Town of Kincardine), not the municipality as a whole. The new amalgamated council agreed to create a $1-million arts endowment fund, and that was approved in 2003, he said. The interest off that money has been used to pay the operating expenses of the arts centre over the years, said Kraemer. However, a loan for the elevator in the building then caused some financial problems for the arts groups, he added. Haight said that in the final analysis, it's up to council to decide what is the appropriate level of support for arts and culture in Kincardine, and budget for that amount. "If it's going to be 20 years from now when the arts groups are ready to build a new theatre, than take that $1 million and use it to put $80,000/year toward the arts," she said. Roppel told council to back up a minute and look at the whole picture. "We have a $2-million shortfall on the lakeshore water pipeline, a multi-million-dollar project in water and sewers in Inverhuron, and an outstanding loan for the medical clinic addition," he said. "We need help. We're talking millions of dollars here. If we can't address the problem of one little building downtown, we're going to have major problems making the hard, hard decisions down the road." Haight said council can't continue to cut capital projects and take money from reserves to pay for operating costs. "It's just not sustainable," she said. "Next year, our provincial funding will be down another $400,000. We need to get a handle on our operating costs." That will be discussed during the special meeting May 26, said deRosenroll. Treasurer Brenda French said a 7.87-per-cent increase would mean a tax hike of about $55 to the average residential assessment of $185,000 for 2010. Council agreed with the proposed tax increase, with the cuts as recommended, and the budget bylaw coming forward for final approval next week.
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