An eleventh-hour funding announcement from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, received by the Town of Gravenhurst one day before council considered the draft 2008 budget, will likely trim the proposed tax rate by almost two per cent.
Although town councillors anticipated tabling a draft budget on Tuesday proposing a 6.92 per cent tax increase, the correspondence received from the province Monday morning indicates the provincial contribution to Gravenhurst will be $148,400 more than it was in 2007, which comes as good news to local ratepayers. Final approval of the budget will take place at the council meeting April 1.
A pre-budget interview on Monday with Mayor John Klinck and corporate services chair Lou Guerriero revealed the 2008 operating and capital budgets now propose to levy $7,124,710 instead of $7,273,110 from taxpayers.
Due to the last-minute change, the proposed residential tax impact of $27.67 per month or $332.07 per year based on $100,000 in assessment is expected to drop. Guerriero said new calculations will need to be done to determine the exact tax impact for property owners.
However, several items have not been recommended in the draft 2008 budget and could impact the tax savings if councillors choose to include them. Guerriero referred to the budget as “lean” and said any additions councillors want to make would have to be approved by resolution. He told the Banner, about $80,000 in spending reflects approximately one per cent of the levy.
Not included in the draft budget is a request from the Muskoka Lakes Association for contributions to its marine patrol, $4,000 for audio recording equipment for council chambers, $6,000 for repair and maintenance of murals, a $20,000 request for administrative staffing at the Seniors Centre, a $40,000 fee for service to the chamber of commerce for promotion and marketing, an additional five hours for a children’s programmer at the library, and bylaw implications depending on the duration of any events.
Of the $7,124,710 levy, $6,788,710 will be used for operations, which represents an increase of $412,037 over last year. Council’s discretionary spending has been pegged around 15 per cent or about $1 million, Klinck said.
Klinck said the main factors contributing to the tax increase are the salary and wage adjustment for management, non-union staff and council members which is nearly 4.5 per cent of the levy. The budget also considers potential changes to the collective agreement for outside workers that will be renegotiated once it expires at the end of March.
He said the increasing cost of electricity, natural gas and insurance has also been accounted for.
Other budget impacts include the ongoing subsidy of the levy due to district monies for the landfill site sale. The subsidy is reduced in 2008 by $60,000, which has the impact of increasing the tax levy by $60,000, which over the years will prevent a nine per cent tax increase once the payments stop, Klinck explained.
The budget also includes another $130,000 contribution for the Muskoka Steamship and Historical Society’s operation of the Muskoka Boat and Heritage Centre at the wharf, a one-day-per-week increase in the fire department’s part-time clerical staff, a provincially mandated one-year contract position without benefits for emergency measures, an additional $15,000 for the chamber of commerce to operate the train station, an $18,700 repayment to the town’s community investment fund to replace the fire department’s tanker truck and a high-speed Internet service line for A-Channel valued at $50,544.
One-time costs include the provincial Communities In Bloom competition, an economic strategy, branding exercise, new town website, $25,000 for boathouse expropriation costs, engineering for the archway and legal costs associated with the new official plan.
A levy contribution of $336,000, up 3.1 per cent from the 2007 levy contribution for the capital budget, will go toward the proposed $1,272,687 capital budget for 41 projects.
Klinck said there are a number of things that won’t be addressed in the 2008 capital budget, including the municipality’s growing infrastructure deficit.
Capital projects that were not recommended for consideration include the arch replacement projected at $234,000, an aerial fire truck valued at $1.3 million, the downtown washrooms project with the Gravenhurst Rotary Club at $70,000, and road projects for Talisman Drive, Musquash Road, David Street and James Street, to name a few.
The reconstruction of James Street will only take place in 2008 if a funding application to the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Initiative is successful, Klinck added.
The budget also reflects funding the purchase of the health unit property and a contribution to the servicing of a stand-alone medical clinic through a $4-million debenture.
The corporate services committee was slated to table the 2008 draft budget at its meeting yesterday. Final approval is expected April 1 in order to give the public a chance to digest the document. Anyone with proposed changes to the budget is asked to contact their councillor or appear as a delegation at a council meeting before April 1.