Kincardine council took an in-depth look at the proposed budget for 2025.
Council had directed staff to present a list of projects and expenses that wouldn’t see a tax rate increase of more than 5%.
During previous discussions, council had directed municipal staff to arrive at a proposed budget with a rate change of 8% or less, and staff had presented an increase that would be at 7.99%, partially due to an increase in policing costs from the province.
That expense has since been taken back by provincial funding, giving the municipality a proposed tax hike of 6.8%.
During a special council meeting on Monday, council had pulled some proposed operating costs for further discussion, including a part-time staffing position for the community development department, a proposed planning manager position, and changing how committed contributions to the Kincardine Health Foundation would be handled.
When thinking about the proposed operating budget, Councillor Mike Hinchberger shared a personal insight to his approach.
“I keep evolving in how I think about the thing [operating budget] over the course of a couple of years, and now I really think about it as not so much as an operating budget, but a tax-supported budget,” he said. “It contains a component for operations and maintenance and a component for capital, and where we sit right now is really [a] 3% increase to reflect increases in costs to operations and maintenance, and a 3% increase to continue to grow the amount of money that we’ve put aside for capital.”
Further discussions were also held regarding the Broadway Street multi-use path, which has estimates in place for potential paving and safety measures to be added to the path, which could cost up to $546,000.
There were also questions raised about the urgency of need for a replacement of the Kincardine Airport’s septic system. Councillor Rory Cavanagh said that he felt there should be a discussion about the airport as a whole, since it wouldn’t be able to be expanded – the east-west runway is too short for expansion, due to physical constraints from the location of Highway 21 and the bluffs.
Director Of Infrastructure & Development Adam Weishar said that a report will come to council within the first quarter of this year, that would be “Taking a look at the overall cost of the site, what the usership looks like and a number of things, and that I think will let further discussions materialize and mature.”
By the end of the meeting on Monday afternoon, council had come to a proposed budget with a blended tax rate increase of 4.96%.
At a previous meeting, Director of Corporate Services and Treasurer Roxana Baumann had informed council that although the current proposed capital budget sat at $27.2 million, none of the equipment or construction costs were directly funded by the tax levy.
It was also explained in the information given to council that municipal taxes are used in three main areas: 57% to municipal costs, 33% to Bruce County, and 10% education and property tax.
Council will discuss the topics pulled during a future meeting before making a final decision on the 2025 budget.
The initial proposed rate increase of 7.99% would translate to an increase of $192 per household.