Two Puslinch councillors who voted in favour of the township’s 2010 budget seemed to have a change of heart last week.
Councillor Dick Visser said since council’s May 19 passing of the budget – including a 24.4% increase in spending and a township tax rate increase of around 12% – he has received dozens of complaints.
He suggested council could have got the tax rate increase down to about 4% if it had used parks reserves to cover 2010 costs for the new multi-use recreational facility (MURF) in Aberfoyle.
“I made a mistake and I’m willing to admit that,” Visser said of his vote of approval on the budget.
Clerk Brenda Law replied, “We don’t have those kind of reserves to draw on.” The bylaw includes at total of $1,920,733 in expenditures for the MURF, with $1,432,656 coming from the federal and provincial governments.
Regardless of the reserves, council should have found a way to fund the MURF “creatively,” Visser said, though he offered no examples of such a scenario.
Councillor Susan Fielding agreed with Visser and said based on the comments she has received, 12% is unacceptable.
“I think we need to be responsive to the concerns,” she said.
Councillor Don?McKay and Mayor Brad Whitcombe disagreed and pointed out that council went through an extensive process when considering this year’s budget figures.
“I think council did an admirable job on the budget,” Whitcombe said, adding council did pass the budget bylaw unanimously.
Visser replied approval must have occurred when he was coming down with pneumonia, and “wasn’t thinking straight.” When asked why he didn’t earlier bring up his idea to cover the MURF from another funding source, Visser stated he “dropped the ball.”
But he noted the tax rate increase could have been 18.5% were it not for him catching a vehicle purchase and proposing it come from reserves.
“That’s what those reserves are for,” responded councillor Matthew Bulmer, who appeared surprised at Visser’s statement.
He added staff presents the first draft budget with lots of items included and it is council’s job to pare costs down.
“You can’t go around playing Santa Claus all year and then not expect to take it on the chin for doing so,” Bulmer said, referring to the public’s response to the 12% tax rate increase.
Whitcombe explained that just a few days a year council makes budgeting decisions, while the rest of the year people ask for money or for projects to be completed.
Council did a good job of dealing with those requests and keeping costs within reason, the mayor said, to agreement from Bulmer.
Whitcombe said unless there is a concrete proposal on how to change things, he is certainly not in favour of reconsidering the budget bylaw.
McKay and Bulmer agreed.
