A town councillor’s motion seeking a breakdown of the county’s expenditures in Erin was defeated recently.
Matt Sammut put forward the motion on June 20, wondering if the town “gets a fair share back” from county tax dollars.
“This has nothing to do with wanting to be confrontational, but instead do the opposite of trying to eliminate some of the misperceptions that may be out there in different municipalities,” he said.
“It’s about accountability, it’s about transparency; it’s about … what’s fair to this municipality.”
Sammut was seeking a breakdown of annual county expenses – from the county’s income statement for 2016 and the budget for 2017 – that go to the Town of Erin, as well as a balance sheet for reflecting the assets held in Erin and their value.
Councillor John Brennan said he does not think the county organized its expenses by municipality.
“I think it’s an opportunity for the county to do some bragging about what people do get,” he said.
“I would hate for this to be a divisive thing.”
Brennan added expenses per municipality may reflect different ly year over year as large capital projects are built in each area.
Councillor Jeff Duncan said relaying this information is the responsibility of the mayor as well as the county councillor.
“They need to be able to inform the citizens for the municipality of the great works that the county is doing, or lack of things that they are doing,” Duncan said.
Mayor Allan Alls said he was able to get some numbers in anticipation of Sammut’s motion.
“The county’s tax levy is divided up. Basically, the south end – which is us, Guelph-Eramosa and Puslinch – get very close to $40 million of the total levy that goes into county, which is about half,” Alls said. “Twenty million goes to the north and about $24 million to Centre Wellington, which is obviously the biggest community within our setup.”
He added that in the county’s five year plan, $29 million is being spent on Erin’s capital assets.
Alls said there are numerous services that are hard to quantify, such as green legacy, economic development, solid waste services, social services, emergency medial services and the OPP.
“Those are just some of the things you can’t really put a dollar on,” he said.
Sammut said, “I respect the county, they do a great job, but I just want to make sure that at the end of the day this community, we’re fighting hard for our residents to make sure that we’re getting a reasonable fair share of money we’re giving them.”
The motion was defeated with Sammut and Duncan in favour and Brennan, Alls and councillor Rob Smith opposed.
