On Monday, Meaford’s council was presented with a 2025 draft budget package that makes clear that council is in for a challenging time as they work toward establishing the municipality’s budget for next year.
As presented to council on Monday, the draft budget calls for a rate increase of 6.33 percent in 2025, which doesn’t seem outrageous as a place to start. A 6.33 percent rate increase is not unlike numbers we have seen in many budgets in the past, however it is important to note that only the 30 ‘core services’ identified by staff are included in that number. The total cost of the core services included in the draft budget is $19.6 million.
Another 49 services that have been deemed ‘elective’ in the draft budget report are not yet included, and would have to be added to the budget by council during their upcoming deliberations. The total cost for all of these elective services is $6.7 million.
Among those 49 ‘elective services’ is policing, which, at a cost of more than $2.5 million, would add 14.48 percent to the required levy in 2025 that is not currently included in the core budget, and would add to the required rate increase for property owners next year.
Among the other 48 services not included in the core draft budget for 2025 are the library contract with the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library ($158,480), short term rental licensing program (estimated to be roughly $500,000), and the annual donation to Meaford’s hospital ($50,000).
Any of the 49 ‘elective’ services that council wishes to include in the 2025 budget will add to the 6.33 percent required rate increase identified in the core budget.
So, while the report noted that a 6.33 percent rate increase would translate to an increase of roughly $58.70 per $100,000 of assessed property value, meaning that a property assessed at $600,000 would see an increase of $352.20 in 2025, once all of the ‘elective’ services not currently included in the core budget, like policing, and library contracts, are added to the budget by council, Meaford property owners can expect a much higher increase in 2025, significantly higher.
If you were tuned in to council’s meeting on Monday afternoon, you heard correctly when Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney suggested that ratepayers could ultimately be facing a 21 percent increase in 2025, something she said council “can’t do very much about”.
The 444-page draft budget report is perhaps the most confusing, and shocking, budget document that I have seen in 16 years of covering Meaford’s council, or in fact in my more than 30 years sitting in council chambers in three municipalities and two provinces. Granted, as I have mentioned in the past, I am not a numbers guy, I am no budget wizard, but I’m pretty smart otherwise, and after several read-throughs of the bulky document, I do know that this budget is going to be controversial. This budget spells trouble, and council has their work cut out for them.
Perhaps the most surprising and confusing element of the draft budget document is the division of the wide range of services provided by the municipality into categories of ‘core’ and ‘elective’.
How for example is policing considered an ‘elective’ you might ask, when most would certainly consider policing to be a core service, a crucial service, certainly not ‘elective’. As the CAO explained to council, she designated policing as an elective service because the OPP has indicated that the Municipality of Meaford will see a 26 percent increase in 2025, bringing Meaford’s cost for policing to nearly $2.6 million. Buckham suggested to council that the municipality might want to challenge that increase, and so policing was plunked into the ‘elective’ camp.
That of course adds to the confusion of the 444-page draft budget document, as at first blush one might see the slide indicating a 6.33 percent rate increase for 2025, but you need to read carefully, and read the entire document, in order to appreciate that the core budget is missing some very important services that are without doubt to be added back into the budget by council that will drive that 6.33 percent increase very quickly into double digits.
While CAO Kymm Buckham presented the draft budget to council, her first budget since she was hired roughly six months ago, council was not permitted to ask questions, or engage in discussion; that will come later in the process, council was told. So in spite of the fact that the 2025 draft budget was presented to council on Monday, unlike every year before we have yet to hear council’s initial thoughts to the draft budget, in a public setting at least.
We will most certainly hear from council however as the process moves forward, with council scheduled to discuss and debate the budget during full-day sessions to be held on November 12, 15, and 19, if needed. The statutory public budget meeting will be held on November 25 at 5 p.m., and council is expected to vote to approve the 2025 budget on December 9.
This is perhaps the most challenging draft budget I have seen in all of my years sitting in council chambers. I am certainly looking forward to seeing council discuss and debate this draft budget, and I am curious to see what ‘elective’ services council opts to add back into the budget, and what if any of the 49 ‘elective’ services identified in the draft budget report are cast aside due to the cost. Over the next few weeks our seven members of council will be engaging in some serious discussion and debate, and the challenge ahead of them is great indeed, as nobody, not one single ratepayer nor any member of council will accept a 21 percent rate increase. Based on the draft budget document, something will have to give, cuts will have to be made somewhere, and we know policing won’t be cut from the budget, so that 6.33 percent increase is already likely in the double digits. A tough road ahead indeed.
As Mayor Ross Kentner noted after the CAO had completed her presentation to council, “there’s not much to smile about in these numbers.”
