Trenton expects surplus, but lower revenue in budget
The budget released by the Trenton has some good news, since the town is anticipating a surplus this year of $19,301.
That surplus will accompany an expected drop in tax revenue, however, since the implementation of new user fees in this year’s budget means the town will have slightly less than in previous years to work with.
Trenton CAO Brian White told council at its regular April 10 meeting that Trenton is budgeting for just over $4.1 million for operating expenditures for the coming fiscal year.
“At the same time, we’re looking at a small reduction in total revenues to be raised from property taxes, including the user fees we’ve introduced,” White added.
The total amount expected to be raised from taxpayers in the 2018/19 budget is a little over $2 million ($2,045,399), “and that is thirty-six thousand dollars lower than total taxation from last year,” White noted.
“With user fees being removed from property tax rates, we’ll be implementing significant reductions in property tax rate for both residential and commercial properties,” said White. The residential rate is $1.38 in this year’s budget, as opposed to $1.99 in last year’s budget, “so that’s roughly a 30 per cent reduction in the overall residential rate,”
White noted.
Meanwhile, the commercial property tax rate is dropping from $5.44 to $3.98 in the 2018/19 budget – slightly more than a 25 per cent reduction.
White said those reductions will be a “relatively significant change in our property taxes,” and will result in a 1.6 per cent increase in total expenditures for the year.
In the 2018/19 budget, the uptick in expenditures will be accompanied by a “restructuring” of town staff, with a reduction in administrative staff and “more boots on the ground” staff. Across the public sector, average wage costs are to increase by 1.5 per cent for non-unionized staff.
For the town water utility, White told council that total expenditures are expected to be $475,162, which constitutes a 1.3 per cent increase over last year’s expenditures. White also predicted an operating surplus of $15,000 this year. White recommended that the town conduct a review of water rates in the coming year.
This 2018/19 budget comes with an updated capital plan for the town. Updates include an assortment of local projects that constitute a total cost of $2,479,000. These projects include upgrades to local infrastructure, from the repair of a storage building at the rink to the repaving of roads, replacement and upgrade of water and sewage lines and repairs on culverts.
White noted the town is considering the purchase of a street sweeper, to be paid for and used in conjunction with other towns in Pictou County on a shared basis, and upgrades to Trenton Park and trails.
Capital funding drawn on to subsidize projects will be coming from reserve gas funds, operating funds, federal infrastructure grants, provincial capital assistance and a debenture for $650,000.
The town will be continuing its snow removal reserve process – one that it has been using for the last few years. This reserve will “provide, for a cost, snow removal based on the average cost over the last 10-year period,” said White.
“If removal costs more than the average cost, we have a reserve that will be drawn on to supplement snow removal costs. Or if we have a year like this one that’s just finished, and we come in at considerably less than the budgeted amount, we will take that surplus and top up the reserve,” said White.