A few adjustments and some new information changed up the proposed 2022 budget tax rate for Penetanguishene.
At a recent committee of the whole meeting, finance and corporate services staff presented council with several options for a final adoption of the 2022 tax rates and levies for the annual budget.
Director of finance/treasurer Carrie Robillard provided council with a brief verbal explanation of the report.
“Based on our 2022 budget that was approved back on December 8,” said Robillard, “the anticipated tax impact where we landed back in December was an estimated overall tax impact of 1.9 percent, with our municipal tax increase at 2.2 percent. And if you recall, the majority of that 2.2 percent was related to the policing costs for 2022.”
Last year, the loss of the Central North Correctional Centre cost of policing recovery amounted to a $346,000 increase, which has kept Mayor Doug Leroux and CAO Jeff Lees chasing the province for assistance to resolve the tax spike on behalf of residents. Council stabilized the tax impact by increasing a $178,500 transfer from the policing stabilization reserve to the tax stabilization reserve.
Since the December budget discussions, both the provincial eduction tax rates and the county tax ratios and rate bylaws were released, which would adjust the blended rate calculations and allow the town of Penetanguishene to calculate their own ratios.
Also since then, a “very large” Assessment Review Board (ARB) minutes of settlement for a commercial property also affected the returned assessment roll, increasing those percentages by 0.3 each.
“Option 2 – which is what staff is recommending – is to utilize our tax stabilization reserve in the amount of $37,000,” Robillard stated, “and that would bring us back to where we anticipated where we thought we would be in terms of town-only of 2.2 per cent and overall impact on the bill of 1.9 per cent.”
Staff recommended the option, which would offset the town-only tax increase to zero per cent, as justification of the intended use for the tax stabilization reserve, here used as a response to the ARB settlement.
“By utilizing any more than $37,000 from our tax stabilization reserve, (that) would offset our operating and capital only portion of our tax increase to zero, leaving the rest, 2.2 per cent – strictly an impact from the policing costs,” said Robillard of alternate options.
“So we don’t want to increase it any more than the $37,000 stabilization, because then we’re using our tax stabilization even more so to offset that policing cost impact.”
Council carried the motion to adopt the 2022 tax rates, levies, and budget estimates which will be brought forward to a future regular meeting of council for approval of necessary bylaws.
The staff report for the 2022 tax rates and levies can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.
