Oxford County council approves 2017 budget with 3.48 per cent levy increase
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After a lengthy meeting, county council approved a 2017 budget that will have a 3.48 general levy increase.
Going into Wednesday morning’s meeting, the proposed Oxford County 2017 budget had a proposed 4.59 per cent increase with a general proposed levy of over $55.3 million. Council managed to get the general levy down to over $55.1 million after a number of amendments were made to the budget.
Council discussed a total of 18 amendments during Wednesday’s meeting, some of these amendments included reducing SCOR’s $35,000 grant by $10,000, reducing the county’s contribution to reserve in facilities operations by $200,000 and funding $25,000 for its new zero waste initiative through reserves instead of taxation.
A number of other amendments made by council also chose to fund other projects through reserves instead of taxation.
Council also shot down an amendment submitted by Ingersoll mayor and county councilor Ted Comiskey to provide over $132,000 to the Fusion Youth Centre for operational assistance.
CAO Peter Crockett said what the levy means for ratepayers is much more complicated than just a simple calculation.
“We were at an average household impact of around $22 going into the meeting (with the 4.59 per cent increase),” Crockett said. “They reduced the overall levy by just under one million dollars, so it’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of less than $22 per household, on an average valued household across the county.”
The county approved a general budget of approximately $232 million, which includes operating costs and a $73.4 million capital plan.
Warden David Mayberry said council decides what are the most important priorities for the community to achieve in a year and the budget is just a reflection of that.
“What does it cost to do what we want to get done,” he said. “I’m relatively satisfied with the budget. There was a bit of jogging around how we were going to pay for things, but certainly the commitment of the county was really to advance the county and all the aspects that staff suggested, which are quite often the comments that are made by council during the year.
“Overall I’m very pleased with the budget,” Mayberry added. “It’s never low enough, but council cut where they could and put some expenses off through the use of reserves.”