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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 2003-03-12, Page 7THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2003. PAGE 7. County approves 8% tax increase By Keith Roulston Citizen publisher After several attempts to pare their 2003 budget, Huron County councillors have approved a $64 million budget that will increase the average homeowner’s taxes by $40. After initially looking at a budget that would have increased the average tax bill for county purposes by 16.4 per cent, county council at its March 6 meeting approved an eight per cent increase. The actual mill rate will go down 5.4 per cent but because of reassessment which has increased the assessment of the average property in the county by 14 per cent, taxes will increase for most property owners to cover an increase of $2.2 million in the county’s budget, explained County Treasurer David Carey in an interview following the meeting. The final rate was accomplished by taking $700,000 from reserve funds to help decrease the 11.8 per cent tax increase that remained at the end of a special day-long meeting of the council’s committee of the whole on Feb. 21. After that meeting councillors instructed Carey to bring the increase down to eight per cent through use of the reserve funds. An allocation of $250,000 to the waste management reserve fund was cut and $640,000 was taken from the “information technology and training reserve fund” a special fund that was set up during a contribution holiday to the municipal employees pension fund. The loss of money for the waste management reserve bothered Central Huron Councillor Carol Mitchell who argued the county has to deal with issues such as the fast approaching closing of the Mid Huron landfill site and the spreading ban for untreated septage on farmland and needed to keep money on hand for the work needed. “For every dollar that comes out of reserves it takes two dollars to put it back in,” Mitchell warned councillors. “Putting it back in will add to taxation.” But Goderich Councillor Deb Shewfelt accused Mitchell of wanting to put the cost of landfills and treatment of waste from septic tanks on the backs of the taxpayers when it should be user-pay. Mitchell argued that the county became involved in the landfill issue to try to save municipalities money by making the most efficient use of existing landfill sites through the transfer of waste from one municipality to another. That requires some expense to the county as the body facilitating the transfer. Planning and Development Director Scott Tousaw explained that whether the county put money into the waste management reserve or not was a political decision but must be involved in the transfer of waste, whether garbage or untreated septage from one municipality to another in order to save the huge cost of environmental studies required otherwise. The county budget this year includes $75,000 for a hydrogeological study at the Wingham landfill site needed in order for the full capacity of the site to be realized so that garbage from other municipalities can be accepted. The study will be done by North Huron’s engineering firm but paid for by the county because it wasn’t needed by the municipality if not for the desire of other municipalities to use the extra capacity. On the issue of treatment of waste pumped out of septic tanks, and currently spread on farmland, no municipality is prepared to treat the waste. Some municipalities don’t have any sewage treatment plants at all, some have lagoons which are unsuitable to treat the septage and even those with mechanical treatment plants will need expensive modifications before they can do the job. An earlier study by B. M. Ross and Associates proposed modifying the Wingham and Exeter plants to treat septage at a total cost of $6 million, which would be paid for by fees to contractors dumping their septage. But Bluewater Councillor Paul Klopp argued that $250,000 more for the waste management reserve isn’t much compared to the $6 million cost of the project so it wasn’t worth retaining in the budget. As for studies, some counties haven’t put any money away at all and Huron will still have $787,000 in a waste management reserve at the end of 2003, he argued. In the end, the budget was supported 13-3 in a recorded vote. Among local councillors supporting the budget were Keith Johnson of Morris-Turnberry; Doug Layton and Murray Scott of North Huron; Bernie MacLellan of Huron East; and Neil Rintoul and Ben Van Diepenbeek of Ashfield-Colbome-. Wawanosh. Opposed were Central Huron Councillors Bert Dykstra and Carol Mitchell. Carey admitted that using reserves would make it harder for councillors to budget next year. The problem of provincial downloading not being revenue-neutral as promised is making it harder for municipalities to balance their budgets, he said. MS lives here. Multiple sclerosis usually strikes people aged 20 to 40, in the prime of their lives. Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada 1-800-268-7582 www.mssociety.ca Doug Gough, R.I.B. (ONT.) CAIB, Manager IVES INSURANCE BROKERS LTD. - BLYTH OFFICE 184 Dinsley St. W. Box 428 Blyth, ON NOMI HO Tel: (519) 523-9655 Fax: (519) 523-9793 All Classes of Insurance WWW.IVES1NSURANCE.COM Call This Is Your Last Chance! Protect yourself against second-hand smoke. Your councillors need to know you support a 100% Smoke Free Public Places and Workplaces By-law by March 18, 2003 Your Councillor TODAY! Ashfield-Colborne- Wawanosh email pws@acwtownship.ca................524-4669 Ben Van Diepenbeek....................529-7830 Neil Rintoul..................................357-2208 Bluewater email zim@town.bluewater,on.ca .........236-4351 Bill Dowson...................................565-2523 Paul Klopp............. 236-4291 Diane Denomme............................565-2192 Central Huron emailcentralhuron@cabletv.on.ca.........482-3997 Carol Mitchell................................482-9015 Bert Dykstra...................................482-7811 Goderich emailgoderich@town.goderich.on.ca .... 524-8344 Deb Shewfelt................................524-9581 Ellen Connelly..............................524-9684 Howick email office@town.howick.on.ca.........335-3208 Norman Fairies.............................335-3926 ■' ■ • -'..........■■ Huron East email jrmclachlan@huroneast.com......527-0160 L.A. Lin StefHer..........................527-2389 Bernie MacLennan......................233-3366 Morris Turnberry email morris@scsinternet.com............887-6137 Keith Johnston..............................887-9091 North Huron emailkadams@townofnorthhuron.ca ....357-3550 Doug Layton.................................357-2483 Murray Scott.................. 357-3778 South Huron emails.strang@town.southhuron.on.ca.. 235-0310 Rob Morley....................................229-8868 Dave Urlin.....................................235-1349 Joe Hogan......................................235-2853 Huron County Health Unit