Amherstburg budget debate ends abruptly with no decision

A contentious and convoluted debate on approving Amherstburg's 2021 budget ended abruptly without a decision Monday when council voted not to extend the meeting past 10 p.m.

The meeting, which began at 6 p.m., included a lengthy agenda in addition to the final approval of the budget. Councillors had been debating the budget for about 90 minutes when a motion was required to continue after 10 p.m. The six councillors voted 3-3 on the motion. Mayor Aldo Dicarlo broke the tie, voting against the motion.

He then called for another motion to adjourn the meeting. That motion passed.

“I'm sure the clerk will be getting a hold of council on a future meeting date,” he told councillors.

But Coun. Michael Prue interjected, saying council should have voted to recess the meeting, not adjourn it, because the meeting hadn't been completed.

The mayor agreed.

Then deputy mayor Leo Meloche piped up, arguing that council would need a reconsideration vote to change the motion because councillors had already voted on it.

Dicarlo disagreed, changed the motion to recess and the meeting finally ended with no plan on when it, and the budget debate, will continue.

Council had already approved a $47.7-million budget in principle during three days of deliberation last month. Of that, $10.4 million is for capital projects, and water and waste water. The proposed budget means the town's taxpayers are facing a 4.88 per cent property tax increase, more than four percentage points higher than the inflation rate.

“It's very problematic,” Dicarlo acknowledged before the meeting. “It's not a rate that anybody wants, especially council.”

But the town has a lot of infrastructure that needs replacing and a lot of legislative requirements it must meet, he said.

“We're playing catch-up on almost everything,” he said.

The increase translates into $40 in additional tax for every $100,000 of property assessment. The average house in the town is valued at $250,000, according to the Municipal Property Assessment Corp.

Another significant reason for the high increase is that the town has not yet received an expected $1.7 million from the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund for small, rural and northern communities.

But council has since learned that the government is expected to announce the funding in January.

The debate Monday was about whether that money, if the town gets it, should be used to address the severe infrastructure deficit, help build up decimated reserves, lower the tax increase or address all three. Or whether council should wait until the government makes its announcement.

Meloche proposed spending some of the money on infrastructure and some to lower the tax increase to 3.49 per cent, an extra $34 on every $100,000 of assessment.

Prue wanted the tax increase lowered to that of neighbouring municipalities like Lasalle, which approved a 1.9 per cent increase. He said he has heard from 50 to 80 residents who are concerned about the increase. Council can't fix all its finances in the middle of a pandemic when people are losing their jobs, he said.

“How long are we going to kick it down the road,” Meloche demanded in response. “We have to eventually face the fact. We have a financial problem.”

The province brought in Deloitte LLP to review Amherstburg's financial management in 2014. The scathing report made 41 recommendations and advised “corrective measures” like raising taxes and cutting expenditures.

Councillors Prue and Patricia Simone put forward two different motions for deferrals.

“This is not the night to do this,” argued Coun. Peter Courtney. “These are all hypotheticals,” he said, referring to if the town will get the money from the province.

Neither motion for a deferral passed.

The proposed budget includes a $1.3-million special capital levy to continue building up the town's capital replacement and reserve funds.

The town no longer takes on debt but is still paying off previous debt.

“We're a long way away from getting to the point where our finances are a little more sustainable,” Dicarlo said.

Amherstburg must also meet requirements legislated by the Ontario government, including a properly funded asset management plan. But it doesn't have the staff to do it all. Some of the positions that are needed were cut from the proposed budget.

The biggest cut to the proposed budget is $150,000 to begin offering public transit through an agreement with Transit Windsor to add a route to Amherstburg. Council had budgeted $200,000 for that. But with few riders during the pandemic, council cut the amount to $50,000 as a placeholder for when the pandemic is over and the number of riders increases.