Grey County council has trimmed the proposed 2024 tax increase to under 10 per cent, but just barely.
On Nov. 9, county councillors were back at the budget table at the conclusion of their regular council and committee of the whole meetings. They continued to face a tough set of budget numbers with a forecasted 2024 tax increase of 10.07 per cent at the beginning of the meeting. The draft double-digit increase persisted despite council’s work to trim the budget by $1,437,600 at a previous budget meeting on Nov. 3.
By the end of council’s session the draft tax increase stood at 9.9 per cent.
The whirlwind meeting featured multiple defeated motions to make major cuts to the draft budget, a closed session that resulted in some further spending cuts and a close recorded vote.
By the end of the meeting, council had decided to hold off making more significant cuts to the proposed budget, after reducing the tax increase to 9.9 per cent during the closed session. The draft budget will come to council with a 9.9 per cent increase included and conversations on further cuts will resume at a special budget meeting on Dec. 8.
On the table at the Nov. 9 meeting were more potential cutbacks that, if fully implemented, would reduce the budget impact in 2024 to just over $4.2 million or 4.02 per cent. These were the Level 1, 2 and 3 cuts that county staff had detailed at the previous budget session.
However, the budget trimming stalled when members of council were unable to pick a driving lane. On one side, some councillors wanted to forge ahead and provide direction to staff about which potential cuts were acceptable and which were not. On the other side, a number of councillors were uncomfortable mandating more cuts this early in the budget process before they had a chance to see the full picture.
Warden Brian Milne repeatedly advised councillors that unless staff were provided direction on further budget cuts, the full draft budget coming on Dec. 8 would not include further spending cuts.
“If no further changes are made today, what you see today will be in the draft budget on Dec. 1,” said Milne.
Owen Sound Deputy Mayor Scott Greig brought forward a resolution to include some of the proposed cuts, however, his effort was defeated by council. Later, West Grey Mayor Kevin Eccles attempted a resolution that would have seen all of the cuts included in the budget, but that too was defeated in a tight 44-40 recorded vote.
“We’ve done nothing today. Let’s see the budget with these reductions,” said Eccles.
The Blue Mountains Mayor Andrea Matrosovs said she could not endorse the list of spending cuts without more context and said council needed a chance to “digest and understand” the full implications.
“We need to have an organized discussion,” she said, noting that the Dec. 8 meeting when the full budget will be presented was the best time to pick up discussions on more cuts.
Hanover Deputy Mayor Warren Dickhart said council should set a budget goal and ask staff to come back at that number.
“I’d rather see us come to a target and say to staff: here is what you’ve got,” he said.
Chatsworth Mayor Scott Mackey called for council to buckle down and go through the list of potential cuts one-by-one and make a decision on each.
“Some of these things we can go through very quickly and provide that direction to staff,” he said. “There are some easy ones.”
County staff will now prepare a full budget package that will be available publicly online on Dec. 1. Council will hold a budget committee of the whole meeting a week later on Dec. 8.
