Essex County council passes 1.5 per cent tax rate hike

Essex County council has approved its 2018 budget, which will see a 1.5 per cent tax rate increase.

That will mean an additional $14.46 on the tax bill of an average home valued at $200,000.

“The budget includes enhancement to our EMS service, that was one of the more significant pieces we’ve had to address,” said Essex County CAO Robert Maisonville.

The county is spending an extra $1.9 million on Essex-Windsor EMS in 2018.

“Response time issues and the call volumes have increased year over year, but what we proposed and what council approved was the addition of 23 full-time staff that will be phased in in 2018, just the logistics of that as well as the cost,” said Maisonville.

The city and county will cover the initial costs of hiring the new paramedic staff.

“In the initial years of enhanced service the province doesn’t share any of those costs because their budget formula is based on the prior year’s budget, so we bear the brunt of those costs in Year 1,” said Maisonville.

The budget also includes $11 million for roadway maintenance and another $11 million for roadway expansion of County Roads 17, 19, 22, 42 and 46.

“We’ve done a lot of work with regard to our asset management plan as well as being prepared to address the expansion of our linear assets, so whether it’s our roads or our active transportation, our trails, there’s a lot of work we’ve been doing, so there’s money set aside for that purpose,” said Maisonville.

“We have a whole series of roads that need to be widened. What we want to do is do that without establishing debt.”

The budget also includes $7 million for active transportation initiatives including building new trails and the widening of roads for bike lanes.

The budget also includes a levy of $600,000 for the new hospital, referred to as the New WindsorEssex Hospitals System, with a goal of raising $5 million by 2027 to fulfil the county’s obligation of the local cost-share commitment.

The county also operates the Sun Parlour Home for Senior Citizens in Leamington, the Essex County Library system and is the funding repository agency for things such as public housing and public health.