Council hacks at 2023 budget during second-round of draft talks

The drone show, the heritage review and the UN Economy Forum are out.

More funding toward the affordable housing reserve, is in.

During Monday night’s strategic initiative standing committee meeting, council took out their red pens and crossed some items off the 2023 draft budget that they felt could be held off for another year, but how removing those items will impact the 2023 tax rate still remains to be seen.

As it stands now, "unavoidable" increases to the 2023 draft budget will account for a 1.63 per cent tax rate increase. Additional "value-added" items up for council consideration, if all adopted, would see that increase creep up to 5.15 per cent.

During Monday’s discussions, town Treasurer Monica Quinlan noted an error in the amount budgeted for phase 2 of the arts centre feasibility study, which resulted in a decrease in the overall tax rate from when the first budget draft was presented.

The draft 2023 budget was first presented during a Nov. 23 special strategic initiatives standing committee meeting and proposed a 1.78 per cent tax rate increase for unavoidable expenses in 2023 including $1.17 million in wage increases, a $302,569 increase for utilities and fuel, $250,000 for the continuation of the grain terminals project and a $132,586 increase in insurance rates.

Value-added items (also called items for consideration) being pondered would bring the tax rate increase to 5.15 per cent or higher in 2023, depending on which priorities council decides are most important to add this coming year.

These items include $314,000 added to the asset management plan reserve, $305,000 toward an urban forestry unit, $65,000 for a fireworks drone show, $91,000 toward a transit coordinator position and $100,000 for a heritage review.

The 2023 draft budget accounts for $133.7 million in spending, with about a 50-50 split for capital versus operating costs. The 1.63 per cent increase represents the overall taxes collected by the municipality from $38,357,000 in 2022 to $39,685,124 in 2023.

On Monday, Coun. Christopher Baines put forward an option to eliminate four items from the budget: $65,000 for a fireworks drone show, $100,000 for a heritage review, $50,000 in continued support for the urban economy forum and $12,000 for new software for social media monitoring, which was supported by council.

It was also a decision supported by the public who responded through polling during "coffee with council" sessions that took place on Nov. 28.

“The public said the heritage review may be necessary, but not at this point, this year coming up,” said Baines. “The drone show seemed to have been the most favoured item to forego.”

In the 2022 budget, council voted to increase the tax levy by one per cent for an affordable housing reserve, which equated to $350,000.

Under the current draft budget, $125,000 is slated to be put toward affordable housing in 2023.

Coun. Deb Doherty put forward a motion on Monday to bump up the amount by $225,000, bringing the total amount to $350,000 in 2023 as well.

During discussions, Treasurer Monica Quinlan noted a 2022 budget surplus of $180,000, that could also be put into the affordable housing shortfall.

The new estimated tax rate based on the changes voted upon by council on Monday will be presented as part of the third draft budget. While initially planned to be presented during a council meeting on Dec. 14, Coun. Rob Ring instead put forward a request that was also supported by council to give staff more time to address the contemplated changes and report back in January at a strategic initiatives standing committee meeting.

“I think (the Dec. 14 date) is a bit aggressive with what we’ve asked of staff to bring back today,” said Ring. “I was pleased to see the amount of public input we got.”

He also asked for the third draft of the budget to go on the Engage Collingwood website prior to Christmas to allow time for the public to send more feedback.

“I think putting it off a couple more weeks isn’t going to hurt anything,” he said.

The motion was passed unanimously. Coun. Brandon Houston and Coun. Kathy Jeffery were absent.