The Municipality of Chatham-Kent is eyeing a tax increase of 4.99 per cent for 2020.
The increase was proposed Wednesday night during the draft budget presentation. For a house assessed at $171,000 in Chatham-Kent, a tax increase of 4.99 per cent would equal an extra cost of $144 a year.
A large portion of the proposed increase, 1.49 per cent, is due to “downloads” from the provincial government. Provincial downloads occur when the Ontario government shifts sources of funding from the provincial income and sales tax onto municipal taxpayers.
Chatham-Kent's provincial downloads for 2020 will force the municipality to factor in an additional $2.3 million right off the bat. A large chunk of the downloads, $898,000, comes from public health services. Additionally, child care and early year services are going from being 100 per cent to 80 per cent funded, equalling a download amount of $420,000. Meanwhile, there is also a 2020 budget impact of $821,700 due to cuts to the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, the province’s main general assistance grant to municipalities.
According to Budget Chair Councillor Brock McGregor, after learning of the changes to provincial funding, council was prepared for the likely impact on municipal budget numbers.
"This is the highest number we've seen," he said. "It's something that I think we've been expecting in the last couple of months looking at the outcomes of the provincial download and recognizing that we've been really consistent with the amount that we've been increasing infrastructure spending. That estimate is where I think we all expected. "
When it comes to the topic of infrastructure spending, the draft budget also includes a one per cent recommended increase in the annual funding for infrastructure, plus $550,000 for the second year of the Storm Sewer Funding Plan and $517,000 for the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, which goes to large-scale infrastructure projects to help communities better manage the risks of disasters triggered by natural hazards. When factoring in expiring debt and inflation on current funding, the draft budget includes a total of just over $5 million in new infrastructure funding.
"The message that we received from the community time and again is that they prioritize infrastructure spending," said McGregor. "That's talking about roads, building assets, about bridges. Those are important and for a long time, we've been struggling to catch up with funding on those. As part of the Asset Management Plan, we've been building in these one per cent budget increase every year to start catching up. As we've seen, we needed to start accelerating in some of those areas. "
Last year, the municipality initially proposed a tax increase between 1.70 and 2.03 per cent and eventually settled on an increase of 1.99 per cent. In 2018, a 2.27 per cent tax increase was proposed with an increase of 1.62 per cent eventually being agreed upon by council.
Budget deliberation meetings will be held on January 28, 29 and 30 from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the Civic Centre. Additional meetings on February 4 and 5 will be held if needed. There will also be a number of community meetings held across the municipality over the next week as a chance for residents to ask questions and provide feedback.
McGregor stresses that the budget is still in its draft stage and the proposed tax increase could change throughout the deliberations.
"There's lots of community input to come yet. There's the budget deliberations themselves, so we're going to see that change over time," he said. "Ultimately, it's the decision of the budget committee where we're going to land on."
To read an overview of the 2020 draft budget click here.
