The Grey County administration building in Owen Sound. (file photo)
Grey County councillors are mulling several options to lower next year’s expected tax rate increase.
County council discussed some 2024 budget projections at a meeting on Friday and learned the expected levy increase is more than 12 per cent. Staff presented several options for county council to consider to try to reduce that number.
Councillors approved a recommendation to achieve about $836,000 in savings by using one-time funding, reducing transfers to reserves and removing some proposed new positions.
But there are more spending cuts to come, and tougher decisions to be made if county council wants to further lower the burden it’s placing on property tax owners with its 2024 budget.
Staff identified up to $5.04-million that could be taken out of next year’s budget, which would lower the levy increase to around 4.83 per cent. There’s several services that could be affected if council decides to proceed with all of the potential cuts.
Slashing some training for staff, cutting funding for a children’s mental health effort and reducing dollars allocated for health care initiatives by about $200,000 are among some of the recommendations that could help reduce the levy increase. There are dozens of budget line items identified beyond that. To name a few: support for the United Way’s 211 program, a sustainable agriculture initiative and even snow-plowing some county-owned lots in Markdale and Kolapore could be slashed.
“We can make really good arguments for everything on this sheet … what we potentially have approved so far, is maybe taking us down from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent,” Chatsworth Mayor and county councillor Scott Mackey says. “We’ve got a long way to go. It’s going to be difficult. I don’t want to touch anything that has to do with looking after people. But, a lot of our dollars are spent looking after people.”
There are also larger expenses planned next year such as enhancements to paramedic services ($372,500) and the county’s annual contribution to affordable housing ($622,700) that could be on the chopping block.
“To change the arrangements we have to focus on affordable housing is quite worrying,” says Blue Mountains Mayor and county councillor Andrea Matrosovs. “… I worry about if we don’t, then there are fewer affordable housing units. What is the implication for those who need (them)? And the kinds of needs they’re going to require for us if they find themselves without homes?
Councillors didn’t make any further decisions at Friday’s meeting. The 2024 draft budget is expected to be presented to Grey County council at its meeting on Dec. 8.
Grey County Warden and Southgate Mayor Brian Milne: “What irritates me more than anything, is that a lot of these items that we’re thinking about pulling out of the budget here, are items that the province should be looking after. They are social services items that were never intended to be funded by the property tax base.”