Tax increase now at 4.11 per cent
A diminished team of Clearview Council members took another look at the 2012 budget Monday afternoon, reaching an uneasy consensus on a slightly smaller tax increase that will be debated once more and possibly passed at their April 30 meeting.
While there was much talk of “efficiencies” and some movement toward developing a method of finding them in the future, the net tax increase was whittled down by just a little less than half a percent – from 4.5 per cent to 4.11 per cent.
To achieve this, $55,670 was removed from this year’s budget, with $28,930 being deferred until next year. Among the cuts was a deferral of $30,000 to replace the Gowan Park pavilion until 2013, although Council agreed to spend $5,000 on the existing structure this year to address ongoing health and safety concerns.
There was also a decision to withhold $15,000 each from two reserve accounts – the Winter Standby account and the Winter Plowing accounts – reflecting that this past winter was a light one and gambling that next November and December will also be kind.
The budget had included $20,000 for job recruitment advertising to help replace the Township clerk and director of public works, both of whom will be retiring in the spring of 2013. That amount was cut in half on Monday, with $10,000 now set aside for that purpose.
Several small changes were made to the Clearview Fire Department’s budget, with $3,300 in extrication equipment purchases deferred until 2013, extrication practice reduced by $3,000 this year and fire prevention efforts reduced by $5,000.
Council members also decided to remove an increase in their remuneration, despite the fact that they’ve received no raise in pay for six years. The proposed yearly increase of $4,370 (spread over seven Councillors, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor) was removed from the 2012, 2013 and 2014 budgets.
In a move that added to the budget but will perhaps bring savings in the future, the organizational study that was removed earlier this spring was reinserted, but at a cost of $25,000 rather than the $40,000 which had been earlier budgeted. The adjustment in price came from Councillor Brent Preston, who has a background in management consulting. During the debate on whether or not it should be reinserted, Councillor Thom Paterson stressed his view that Council should have a role to play in the drafting of the study’s terms of reference, in order to make sure that whatever consultant is chosen to do the work understands that the Township is looking for advice on how to operate more efficiently.
Throughout the afternoon, Councillor Paterson aggressively pursued several other ways of bringing the increase down, including the introduction of a hiring freeze until after the organizational study, deferring a five-year review of the Roads Needs Study that the public works department uses to determine when and where to do roadwork, and reducing some IT expenditures on new computers.
All of them received pushback from staff, however, and little buy-in from his fellow Councillors.
Towards the end of the meeting, Paterson also mentioned the possibility of some type of relief policy that could shelter low-income seniors and persons with disabilities from annual increases to taxes and water and sewer fees. That idea was left to future debate.
Township treasurer Edward Henley has now been instructed to work the new numbers up for presentation to Council on April 30. However, when Henley asked whether he should prepare the final budget bylaw, he was told to leave things open for more changes that might come from a final debate that night.
