MINTO – Town council has approved a 2024 budget including a 4.39 per cent increase in the local levy and a tax rate increase of 1.74%.
That translates into an additional $9.33 in taxes per $100,000 of assessment or $23 for the average residential property owner.
The average residential property in Minto is valued at only $250,000 due to a province-wide lag in current value assessment generated by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
The corporation’s scheduled reassessment program was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not yet resumed.
The 2024 budget, approved at the Dec. 19 council meeting, calls for a levy (spending supported by local tax dollars, as opposed to grants, user fees or other income sources) of $6,389,700, up $274,900 or 4.5% from $6,114,800 budgeted in 2023.
However, factoring in an estimated $85,000 in assessment growth will bring the levy requirement to $6,304,700 in 2024, up about $264,900 or 4.39% from the $6,039,800 budgeted for 2023.
With the non-tax supported portion of the operating budget pegged at $4,864,200 the town’s total operating budget for 2024 comes in at $11,253,900, including a capital budget of $3,702,400.
Treasurer Gordon Duff noted the final budget is unchanged from the draft presented at earlier budget sessions on Nov. 7 and 28, and at a public budget open house on Dec. 5.
“There are no changes to the amounts that we discussed earlier,” Duff told council.
Among the projected costs driving the budget increase for 2024 are:
- a $17,500 increase in insurance premiums;
- $35,000 bump in group benefit costs;
- additional $50,000 for IT support;
- $18,000 in part-time labour costs for the fire department;
- $21,900 for utilities; and
- $34,000 in additional spending on vehicle fuel and maintenance.
A cost of living (COLA) increase of 4% for municipal staff will add about $178,200 to payroll costs in 2024.
The CPI increase includes a portion of the 2023 COLA increase that was deferred to avoid a much larger increase based on the town’s human resources policy.
A finance department reports states the capital budget focuses on “investments in infrastructure renewal across the organization” funded from a combination of tax-funded reserves, non tax-funded reserves, development charges and grants.
“We wish our capital budget was much higher, to try and address some of the infrastructure deficit,” said Duff.
However, he noted, “The grants are not too plentiful in this environment, so it’s basically spending, I think, within our means again. There’s no new borrowing added this year.”
Mayor Dave Turton observed the 2024 budget is a bare bones maintenance effort.
“We work hard to do the things that we need to do … and it’s still tough to keep our head above water. But in this budget, there’s not a lot in it because there’s no fluff,” stated Turton.
“I’d like to thank the staff for bringing it forward and working with us. I’m in favour of this budget.”
“We really appreciate the work the staff go to to put our budget together and to bring in something that we can certainly work with,” said councillor Judy Dirksen, who chairs the town’s finance committee.
“I see a lot of councils that get a budget with something ridiculous, like a 10% increase, from their staff and then council has to cut it back … and we just bypass all those steps and, for the most part, the staff bring us a reasonable budget in the first place.”
Council approved a motion to receive the report and adopt the 2024 capital and operating budget as presented.
Dirksen declared a conflict of interest and did not vote on the portion of the budget dealing with compensation in the public works winter control budget as her husband works part-time as a town snowplow operator.
