By Stephen Vance, Editor
Nobody likes tax increases, and Meaford ratepayers have certainly had more than their share of hefty tax hikes in recent years. While it may not have seemed fair, and while Meaford councillors have endured the wrath of residents angered at the increased drain on their pocketbooks, we’re now seeing the benefits of Council remaining steadfast in their determination to right Meaford’s financial ship.
The presentation of Meaford’s first draft of the 2014 budget on October 28 was missing the one component that has accompanied the last few budgets – the dark cloud.
Like it or not, accumulated deficits of more than $3 million a few years ago had to be dealt with, and at the time, the only course of action available to Council and Meaford’s administration was to drain municipal reserve funds in order to eliminate that deficit – municipalities in Ontario are not allowed to carry deficits, and when one occurs, it must be dealt with immediately.
In September, Mayor Francis Richardson requested that the much-maligned five-year plan be abandoned a year early, and he also requested a 2014 budget with a maximum two percent increase, and that is exactly what Council received on October 28.
While three short years ago Meaford’s reserves funds were frighteningly low at roughly $250,000, badly needed infrastructure projects were put on hold, older vehicles and equipment were nursed along to drain every possible minute of service life out of them, and everybody – councillors and ratepayers alike grew tired of the inability of the municipality to do much of anything that required cash.
But that was then, and now Meaford has managed to dig itself out of the financial hole, and not only do we have a budget with a reasonable rate increase, but there’s money in the bank – Treasurer Darcy Chapman told Council that more than $4 million is projected to be in our reserve funds in 2014.
What does that mean? It means that Meaford is back in business. Meaford can now afford to apply for infrastructure grant opportunities knowing that our share is in the bank ready to take advantage of upper levels of government funding the bulk of a given infrastructure project.
It also means that Meaford isn’t borrowing money for such projects. In fact, the Treasurer told Council that he projects Meaford’s long-term debt will shrink from nearly $10 million today, to slightly less than $6 million five years from now.
We can debate the finer details, and some might argue that there is still fat to be trimmed from Meaford’s budget, but nobody can deny that we’re in a much better position than we were a few short years ago.
In the 2010 election campaign, every candidate elected had expressed support for, and a desire to stay the course and let the five-year plan, then in its infancy, play out. And that is what this council has done. They weathered the storm of angry ratepayers, furious at their ever-growing tax bills, and stuck to their position that the pain experienced over the last few years would pay off.
Like any government, Meaford’s council and administration have certainly made mistakes, and they’ve managed to irritate various factions of the community at one time or another, but the fact that they held firm with the five-year plan in spite of the anger being directed at them is commendable.
Why Meaford was in that position to begin with is really irrelevant. The finger pointing game, the assigning of blame, the constant scolding of councillors is a natural human reaction, and ratepayers have every right to express that anger and hold Council’s feet to the fire.
But this is a good news budget, and the worst appears to be behind us. Certainly there are numerous issues facing Council in the final year of this council term, and there will still be blunders every now and then, but we’re back in the black, and I can only hope that any future councils resist the urge to go down the road of zero tax increases ever again.
We all know that as each new year shifts into the next, our own costs for things like utilities and fuel increase, so how can we expect governments to not at least increase taxes to keep pace with inflationary realities that affect us all?
