Town able to keep lid on tax hike

Residents
face only a

1.1% jump
Tax bills indicating a slight tax hike for all property classes will be mailed out shortly after town council approved the 2009 budget Monday night.
Several members of council noted how pleased they were that what started out as a daunting budget year ended up seeing only a 1.1 percent tax hike to residential ratepayers.
“In these tough economic times, when we’re probably facing an overall three percent increase in inflation, and generally a three percent increase in salaries, benefits, and wages across the corporation, and to maintain the services that we do, and still come in at 1.1 percent tax increase is, in my opinion, phenomenal,” Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft said, adding “a lot of credit has to be given to administration and members of the management team.”
“We all know the hard economic times we are facing today. Therefore, council worked meticulously with administration to develop a budget we can be very confident in,” echoed Mayor Roy Avis, who commended council and administration for the “tremendous effort” put forward in developing a budget for 2009.
The mayor added creating a budget is the most important of council’s duties as it is when projects are developed, purchases are decided upon, and user fees, costs, and services are reviewed.
“I want to stress the importance to citizens that they come forward at budget hearings to give their opinions and requests,” Mayor Avis said. “This provides guidance for council.”
Coun. John Albanese also gave “big kudos” to administration for the hard work they put into the budget.
The entire 2009 budget was explained in a PowerPoint presentation by Information and Technology manager Darryl Allan.
The budget includes levy increases (shown here with how much each property class will be paying per $100,000 of assessment) as follows:
•Residential—1.1 percent ($1,863.78 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Multi-residential—1.2 percent ($4,350.20 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Commercial—0.3992 percent ($5,356.39 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Industrial—0.4762 percent ($5,924.35 per $100,000 of assessment);
•Large industrial—0.4987 ($10,319.06 per $100,000 of assessment); and
•Pipeline—0.847 ($6,089.75 per $100,000 of assessment).
For the residential class, the levy increase equals an extra $20.32 for the base rate for that class per $100,000 of assessment.
For multi-residential, it’s an extra $51.68 per $100,000 of assessment while for commercial, it’s an additional $21.30.
For the industrial class, it’s another $28.08 per $100,000.
For large industrial, it’s $51.21 more while for pipeline, it translates to an additional $51.15 per $100,000 of assessment over the base rate for that class.
In addition to the tax increases, how much property owners actually pay this year may be slightly higher or lower than what they paid last year due to the recent MPAC reassessment.
For instance, if someone’s property was assessed at $100,000 previously and now is worth $120,000, their taxes obviously will be correspondingly higher.
The total 2009 operating budget is $21,026,101. About $9.7 million of this is covered by municipal taxes while the balance is supported by the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund ($3.142 million), education taxes ($2.6 million), payments in lieu of taxes ($802,148), as well as user fees, revenues from licences, permits, and fines, and various provincial and federal grants for providing certain services.
(The public may recall new user fees were passed by council earlier this year, showing an average increase of three percent in most areas).
Meanwhile, the total capital budget is $15,272,758. Most of the cost of the capital projects is funded through various grants or reserves, with $1,667,819 to be funded through long-term debt.
In turn, this long-term debt and interest is paid off over the next 10 years through the aforementioned tax increases.
The first instalment will be due July 31, with the second due by Aug. 31.
Copies of the 2009 budget are available at the Civic Centre or online at www.fort-frances.com
In related news, Jon Evans of BDO Dunwoody presented council with the 2008 consolidated financial statements and management letter, summarizing that the town’s finances have been very well-managed for yet another year.
Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig said the audit contains key performance indicators that administration and council are doing an excellent job, and was proud that the management letter was, in Evans’ words, “clean”—meaning it had very few recommendations for the town to improve its fiscal management.
McCaig added the commitment by the entire organization to circulate timely financial reports, and address them accordingly, has enabled them to manage the public purse strings in an effective manner.
“As mayor, it is rewarding to receive information from our auditors regarding our financial position and how well our treasury department has operated,” said Mayor Avis, who then thanked treasurer Laurie Witherspoon, McCaig, and the rest of administration for all their hard work.