On Wednesday evening, following its eighth municipal budget review meeting, Chatham-Kent Council finalized the Municipality of Chatham-Kent 2012 budget. In an 8 to 7 vote, with three members of Council absent, Council approved a 2.3 percent tax increase.
As directed by Council, on January 10 the municipal administration had tabled a draft 2012 budget that provided a table of options for the Council budget committee’s consideration. The table served two functions:
- It provided a column of costs that would maintain existing services, phase in the municipality’s infrastructure deficit, and accommodate new initiatives
- It provided the Council budget committee with multiple options that would enable reductions to a potential increase in increments of 0.5% all the way to a zero tax freeze (0.0%)
The following table gives a high level overview of where the process started and what Council approved:
|
Draft |
Revised (*Note 2) |
Final |
|
| Maintain existing services |
4.1% |
2.4% |
2.1% |
| Phase-in full infrastructure funding |
2.0% |
2.0% |
0.3% |
| Consider new initiatives |
1.5% |
1.5% |
0.2% |
| Service level changes |
0.0% (*Note 1) |
0.0% |
(0.3)% |
| Required to accomplish all three |
7.6% |
5.9% |
2.3% |
*Note 1 – Administration presented options in increments of 0.5% that enabled Council to consider decreases up to and including a tax freeze.
*Note 2 – The “Revised” column above reflects Province of Ontario funding announcements received after the draft was tabled but before the Council budget review started.
As outlined, Council’s final decision was a 2.3% increase
- The administrative proposal to invest 2.4% to maintain existing services was changed to 2.1%
- The proposed infrastructure phase-in for 2% was changed to 0.3%
- New initiatives proposed for 1.5% were implemented at 0.2%
- Service level options provided to consider a tax freeze were acted on to a level of 0.3%
- For 2012, 1% equals $1.2M
