Previous
Working to ease the pain
?As you will see in our front page story, Uxbridge council has passed a budget calling for a 2.73-per-cent increase in municipal property taxes in 2011.
The first reaction of many homeowners in the township might, understandably, be one of frustration and anger. With the economic crisis that has plagued us for the last couple or so years still not over, many have seen little or no increase in their own incomes of late and are faced, on a daily basis, with finding ways to live within their means after having already cut their discretionary spending to the bone. Why, they might ask, can council not do the same?
The fact is, they had little choice. They deferred a number of projects, mostly in public works, to lower the spending this year, but they were also faced with the problem that deferring some projects can lead to greater costs down the road.
The Cosmos attended much of the budget process during December and January and watched as the councillors waded through page after page filled with numbers submitted by all township departments. Department heads were questioned closely about the budgets they brought forward for approval and were asked to give reasonable explanations for many of the expenditures they proposed. Just about every department was required to return at least once with a new whittled down budget.
There was little, if any, political grandstanding during the process. Council went through the budget hearings in a business-like manner and, despite the fact they had just gone through a municipal election during which many candidates talked of things they would like to see done in the township, no councillor was beating the drum to find financing for any particular pet project.
While it is possible for any of us to nit-pick and find a few dollars here and a few dollars there that might have been cut from the budget, The Cosmos believes that, overall, the budget committee did the best job possible.
At the start of the process, budget committee chairman Pat Molloy said council was seeking to trim $2.6 million from the budgets submitted by staff. At the end of the day, they almost achieved that goal. But with provincial legislation such as the Oak Ridges Moraine Act cutting deep into one of the township's primary sources of revenue, namely development charges, there was little council could do but increase property taxes. Indeed, when considering the budget, council is bound by numerous regulations imposed by upper levels of government and other government bodies that impact on their ability to increase revenue or cut expenditures.
To keep the tax increase as low as possible, council had to make some difficult decisions, which, of course, is what they were elected to do. Having made those decisions, they undoubtedly will face some flak from some disgruntled residents.
One of the more controversial decisions was to close the Zephyr branch of the Uxbridge library in order to save $36,000. That closure, however, has been put off until Dec. 31, even though the branch librarian will be retiring in a couple of months. The delay will, as Mr. Molloy said, allow council time to look at other options.
They will, however, have to face more difficult decisions in the year ahead, because ,as of now, they are talking about a tax increase of between five per cent and six per cent in 2012.
