Huron East Council moving ahead with third budget draft

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

Huron East Council is moving ahead with approval of the third draft of its budget, set for a public meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.

Treasurer Paula Michiels presented her third draft of the budget to council at its Dec. 21 meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom. It included a number of changes and a shortfall of approximately $150,000, which she ultimately suggested be settled by raising taxes and council agreed.

First, Michiels made several changes suggested by council at the previous budget meeting. She removed the $250,000 transfer to reserves for the future replacement of the Seaforth fire hall and shifted funding for two electric vehicle charging stations to the municipality’s solar panel reserves, freeing up an additional $20,000.

She also deferred the elimination of carry-forward deficits at the Brussels, Morris and Grey and Seaforth and District Community Centres until the three-year period between 2023 and 2025, though she said that decision won’t really affect the 2022 budget. She recommended settling the centres’ budgets at the end of 2022 and beginning the process of paying down those deficits in 2023, perhaps over a three-year period. That way, Michiels said, Huron East and its partner municipalities have a year to prepare and plan for that cost.

The second draft of the budget, however, sat with an overage of over $560,000, so Michiels and her team had to make further cuts to get closer to balancing the budget. As a result, Michiels deferred the replacement of a leaf vacuum to 2023 ($82,000), reduced contracted public works winter control services ($60,000), a portion of the Brussels fire hall addition is expected to be incurred in 2023 ($137,500), administration salaries have been reviewed and updated due to a retirement ($5,603) and the public works tandem replacement will be increased ($3,215).

With Michiels’ proposed changes included in the budget, there is still a shortfall of $150,086.

While she recommended raising taxes to cover the shortfall, she did present council with several other options, including simply taking on more debt or taking the amount from reserves. However, the municipality’s reserves need to be topped up, she said, in order to ensure long-term sustainability. The only reserve with a substantial amount, she said, is the bridge reserve, which is where council allocates its gas tax funding. Using that money for something other than bridge repair and replacement, she said, would go against a motion passed years ago, which is why the bridge reserve is in such good shape.

To fund the shortfall through taxation would mean an average municipal tax levy increase of 9.49 per cent, ranging from an increase in Seaforth of 2.05 per cent to 15.4 per cent in McKillop. The increase would equate to an increase on the municipal portion of annual taxes of $5.61 in Seaforth per $100,000 of assessment, $43.19 in Brussels, $56.01 in Tuckersmith, $56.68 in McKillop and $60.66 in Grey. With the average residential assessment in Huron East sitting at $197,000, those numbers, she said, could essentially be doubled for the average homeowner to estimate their municipal tax increase for the coming year.
Michiels also reminded council that, while her budget includes municipal taxation, as well as area-rated items, it does not yet include budgets for Huron County or the education levy, neither of which have been determined.

Councillor Ray Chartrand spoke in favour of Michiels’ changes, saying he would be opt to fund the remainder of the budget from a taxation increase. 

Councillor Joe Steffler, however, was against removing the transfer to reserves for a new Seaforth fire hall. He said the municipality’s fire departments have been “underfunded” for too long and it was about time council began supporting them to a higher degree.

Council moved ahead with Michiels’ third draft of the budget, which will be presented at a public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18.