The Town has approved a one mill (per cent) increase for residential ratepayers, and a 0.5 mill increase for non-residential ratepayers.
Council approved its capital revenues and expenses budgets at $4,618,783, which includes the increases in property taxes. It means that for every $100,000 in assessment, home owners will pay an additional $100 in taxes.
For the non-residential ratepayers, it amounts to an additional $50 in taxes for every $100,000 in assessment. For a home that is assessed at $200,000, the owner will pay an additional $200 in taxes.
The Town’s operating budget was also approved with revenues of $10,789,227 and expenses of $10,785,776, for a surplus of $3,451, which would be used to offset any reductions in assessment or any unplanned expenses.
The 2011 overall residential taxable assessment for the Town increased to $341,861,920, up from $338,031,320.
The 2011 overall non-residential taxable assessment also increased to $97,458,500 from the previous $92,294,510.
The Town also saw a reduction in its Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant provided by the province to $123,795, while the expenses for power and gas utilities will increase to about $40,000.
The net cost for the Town to provide recycling services to the community is approximately $145,000, while building, equipment and vehicle maintenance costs have increased by about $60,000.
Materials and supplies have been maintained close to the 2010 levels, while insurance costs have risen slightly over the past year. These are some of the additional costs that have had a direct impact on the budget, Mayor Brian Schulz said.
“A few years ago, the Town and County together decided to get into recycling when there was government monies and equipment available,” Schulz said. “It would have been silly for us to not get involved with this. Together, we purchased the truck and the equipment and built a facility to handle the operations.
“As more and more people started using the service, we had to hire more staff to operate the program. All of a sudden, what was a government grant is now costing us $165,000 in operating costs. We were really anticipating that the County would remain our partner with this, but at this point, they are no longer putting any money into it. Whatever their reason is, we now have this extra cost, and this isn’t something we can just stop.”
Another major issue for the Town is a $700,000 combined deficit from the pool and the arena. Schulz said even though the County has stated that its users account for about 55 per cent of the pool’s usage, they pay only $115,000 toward the facility.
“Utility bills are going up, but we have to have a pool and an arena, so we have to find the money to run them. We had to up the mill rate to cover the costs. If the County agreed to pay 50/50, we’d be in a much better position.”
Furthermore, council reviewed staffing levels in the various departments and allocated some additional staffing hours for recreation, arena and parks, public services and water treatment plant operations for the delivery of municipal services. Council also incorporated a 1.5 per cent increase for Town staff.
The 2011 school requisition from the province is $1,110,497, which is an increase of $76,895 over last year. This amount is collected in a separate tax rate. As a result, the school portion of the tax rate will increase to 2.4571 mill on residential properties, up from the previous 2.3099. This would mean a residential increase of $14.72 for every $100,000 in assessment (or $29.44 for a home assessed at $200,000). For 2011, a large number of residential properties will see a decrease in their overall assessment, which will help to buffer the increase, Schulz said.
For non-residential properties, the school portion of the tax rate will increase to 3.1176 mills, up from 3.0791 mills, which works out to an increase of $3.85 for every $100,000. For 2011, a number of non-residential properties had an increase in assessment so the small increase in the school tax rate will have very little effect on the overall taxes paid by the property owner, Schulz said.
The 2011 requisition from Barrhead and District Social Housing Association saw an increase of $2,040 to $50,661. This amount is divided among the total assessment and is listed as a separate tax rate on the property tax notice. For all properties, this measures out to $11.81 for every $100,000 in assessment.
With all of this taken into account, Schulz said he thinks a one mill increase and a 0.5 mill increase are fair for the residents of Barrhead.
“We need to maintain our infrastructure,” he said. “We need to keep in mind we need to do water, sewer and street projects. In the past, we have done these projects every second year. Last year was a boom for us, because of funding from the federal and provincial governments, so we really escalated last year our infrastructure program. We’re not doing anything major this year, and we will maintain our budget for next year, when we’ll be looking at our 10-year plan.”
Schulz said things are going well in Barrhead, and a one mill and 0.5 mill increase isn’t something that isn’t manageable. He said the people in Barrhead are wise enough to know that with increasing expenses, the Town has to cover them through taxes.
“That is why I’ve always been a proponent of not taking taxes to donate to this charity and that,” he said. “We take the taxes to ensure the people have the services they wish to have and maintain. The only way for us to lower taxes is to cut services, and we looked long and hard at that, but we want to maintain the quality of life in Barrhead, and we think the people want these services.”
