Prior to Christmas Wellington North received notice from the Ministry of Finance that the township will receive 20% less in 2010 through the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF).
This year Wellington North will receive $1,028,000 which is a reduction of $257,000 from the 2009 funding of $1,285,000.
The Township has received $1,285,000 each year since the introduction of the OMPF in 2005 to replace the former funding program under the Community Reinvestment Fund (CRF).
There are different components of the OMPF, each determined by a specific formula. However, since its introduction the province assured each municipality they would not receive less each year than what was received in the prior year, despite whatever amount would be calculated given the respective formulae.
Beginning in 2010 this assurance is being phased out.
The impact of this reduction will be assessed over the course of the 2010 budget discussions. However, this revenue reduction, by itself, will have an impact of 5% on the 2010 tax rate just to accommodate the shortfall in revenue.
Treasurer John Jeffery said the municipality had heard rumblings roughly a year ago this might happen.
“It is not as bad as what we had feared, but it’s bad enough,” Jeffery said. He added it will be an issue to be discussed in the next few weeks as council reviews its budget.
“We will try to incorporate this News with everything else,” Jeffery said.
Broomhead said in his discussions with Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zui and Mapleton Mayor John Green, who sit on the warden’s advisory committee for the province, “apparently there’s still quite a bit of discussion going on, so there’s still a chance.
“As of this morning, this still isn’t carved in stone,” Broomhead said. “We have to keep putting the heat on and turning the screws, lobbying to keep the status quo.”
Jeffery said it sounded encouraging, but he still needed to work with the information at hand.
