Over the past few weeks, the Corporate Services Standing Committee (CSSC), a committee of Council, has been working with staff to produce an acceptable Budget for 2009. The result was presented to Council on June 8th and passed at that meeting. The budget documents will be posted on the township website www.gbtownship.ca in the next few days, but I thought that I would send you the key points in the budget.

1. The total budget calls for Capital spending of $2.2 million, focussed on roads and recreation. Included in this total is $800,000 directed to “infrastructure funded projects”. These are defined as the projects that will attract Federal and Provincial funding grants in the ratio of 3:1 Township spending; i.e. the Township would spend $800,000 on projects that the Feds and Prov would contribute $1,600,000 towards completion. We put these in the budget to ensure that the Twp receives it’s “fair share” of these infrastructure grants. We have 5- 10 projects for which we have applied to the Feds and Prov, but at this time do not know which ones will be awarded, so we have left the item titled “infrastructure funded projects”.
2. Operational spending is budgeted at $5.2 million, up about 10% from last year. The key components in this increase are increased costs in health benefit plans; additional consultant fees for the myriad planning activities that are on-going, including the Official Plan Review mandated by the Province to be completed every 5 years; substantial increases in the materials used for roads maintenance, and also, some accounting changes required by the new PSAB regulations, which have moved some costs from capital to operations. The management salaries expense is being forecast at last year’s budget; that is, no increase. Also, we are initiating a full organizational review that will assist the Township in aligning its staffing requirements correctly to meet the future challenges anticipated by growth in the Township over the next few years.
3. The Municipal tax rate increase for 2009 is 4.76%, which is in line with the District’s rate increase of 3.9% and Waste Management of 4.4%. Provincial Education rate has decreased by 4.55% as a result of the uploading some costs back to the Province. The net effect for you (and me) as property owners in 2009, is as follows:

   For each $100,000 in assessed value of your property:

   • Municipal Taxes @ .00210953 = $ 210.95
   • District General Levy @ .0033729 = $ 337.29
   • District Waste Management @ .0008066 = $ 80.66
   • District Hospital Levy @ .0000273 = $ 2.73
   • Provincial Education @ .00252 = $ 252.00

   Total Taxes on $100,000 Assessed value = $ 883.63
   The total last year (2008) was = $ 867.28
   The overall increase 2009 vs 2008 is $16.35 or 1.89%

Obviously there are a tremendous number of details in the budget, but those are the key points I thought at you should know asap. As always, if you have questions or concerns please contact me directly at my email address below.

Jon Lett
Area Councillor
Ward 3, Baxter
Township of Georgian Bay
705-756-2967 Home
705-733-6019 Cell
councillor.lett@rogers.com