Council wrapped up their sixth night of deliberations on Thursday night by passing the budget for Chatham-Kent. One year removed from approving a 0.00% tax increase, the impact will be 1.99% in 2016.
“I would prefer no tax increase at all as many families continue to struggle in this economy but the budget process got to the point where some councillors started bringing up for reconsideration motions for extra costs to the taxpayers that the budget committee had already voted down,” said Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley.
“That told me it was time to bring it to a close before any items important to Wallaceburg were cut.”
Wallaceburg Coun. Carmen McGregor said she was happy with the final outcome.
“I think it was a responsible budget and I think it is one we can live with,” she said. “We have to keep up with cost of living and different things. We had some interesting nights, we saved some services in some local communities and we still came out with a responsible budget.”
Some of the moves made by council on the final night of deliberations, include
– Trimming the infrastructure phase-in reserve by $690,000
– Cutting $320,000 from a reserve allocated for labour contracts
– Slashed $675,000 from the community initiative fund
– $2.84 million was moved from the Ontario Works reserve to a new reserve intended for the Chatham-Kent Hospice and the new research centre being built at Ridgetown College
– Turned down the re-instatement of the Communities in Bloom coordinator position – (watch for more on this story)
– A new fire inspector was re-added to the budget – (watch for more on this story)
North Kent Coun. Leon Leclair said he is satisfied with the final number, but not happy about how they got to the outcome.
“Infrastructure didn’t get what it needed to keep going into the future,” he said. “They took out $700,000 out of that budget. I could not support that and it was passed narrowly. Everybody may be happy for a couple of weeks here because we kept the tax down a little bit, but the other 50 weeks of the year we’re going to be getting phone calls because our roads are getting worse, potholes and such.”
Leclair added: “As a business person, you’ve got to put money into your projects otherwise you get behind. I think some councillors feel the province and Federal government is going to come rescue us. I think a lot of communities need rescuing and I don’t know if we’re going to get rescued. Sometime you’ve got to look out for your own backyard, and I don’t think we are. I know the rural people are really complaining about the quality of our roads.”
Leclair said he wasn’t impressed that council took 10% out of reserves during this budget.
“That is really robbing the future of our community,” he said. “I do not agree with that whatsoever. 10% was used to pay for one-time items, some other items… I think that is not prudent. What that is going to do now, if there is a worthwhile project that comes forward, we won’t have that money available.”
Leclair said he thought council ignored small business with the 2016 budget as well.
“There is nothing in the budget that shows we’re here to promote growth here within our industry,” he said. “Small businesses are a driver within this community. There is nothing whatsoever that supports it. Who is paying property taxes, who is buying houses if you don’t have jobs.”
North Kent Coun. Joe Faas said he was disappointed that more money was cut from the infrastructure reserve once again.
“It seems to be an easy spot to take money,” Faas said. “We’re already underfunding our infrastructure, so this just puts us behind again. If we keep doing that somewhere along the line we’re going to have to pay for that.”
Wesley said infrastructure was still increased by $700K through other methods in the budget.
“The reduction was to reduce the added spending to 700K… a more fair amount for an annual increase,” he said. “Chatham-Kent is well ahead of most other communities in dealing with infrastructure funding.”
Wesley added the overall budget process “definitely has to change.
“Community groups, like Wallaceburg previously, were caught off guard by proposed cuts in service to their communities. This is unacceptable. The affected community groups should have known about possible cuts and Chatham-Kent should have been working with them for solutions way before budget discussions,” Wesley said.
“Throughout this budget there seemed to be a lack of focus on what council wanted to achieve but in the final session we got to where it was generally acceptable to a majority of council.”
With the budget passed, the average Chatham-Kent household (approximately $165,000) will pay an additional $53 on their property taxes.
