Draft budget calls for 2.5% increase

New mayor, council have first look at proposal for new year

The city may be spending less on construction projects in 2019 compared to 2018, but more on city services if they approve the new draft budget document as set out by city staff.

The draft budget — which councillors saw for the first time Monday evening — recommends a 2.5 per cent tax increase.

Councillors didn’t start debating the proposed budget on Monday, though: they have until Jan. 14 to review the draft documents before they begin a week of budget talks.

In the meantime, there will be a public meeting on Jan. 9 where people will be able to weigh in on the draft budget at City Hall.

Coun. Dean Pappas, the city’s new finance committee chairman, told councillors the budget is one of the most important documents of the year.

“It sets the goals and priorities of the community – and we must balance those priorities with the ability to pay,” Pappas said. “We don’t want to tax anybody out of their homes – but we still want to provide services.”

The draft budget recommends spending $70.4 million on 206 construction projects in 2019 – a decrease of about $15.2 million, compared to 2018.

Nonetheless, there are 15 more projects planned for 2019 compared to this year: 206 projects, versus 191.

One big project that is being deferred is the twin-pad arena at Trent University.

At $53 million, it was supposed to have a groundbreaking in 2018 and be paid down over a number of years.

But now that a provincial government grant of $18 million isn’t coming after all, the project is going to wait for 2020.

Meanwhile the city has a new source of revenue for construction projects: through a revenuesharing plan, the city can expect $4 million in 2019 from Shorelines Casino Peterborough.

The casino opened on Crawford Dr. Oct. 15; next year will be its first full year of operation.

In addition to $70.4 million for construction, the draft budget document recommends spending a $282.1 million to carry out city services.

That’s $12 million more for city services, this year compared to

last.

There are no reductions in city services planned for 2019, and in some cases there could be enhancements.

The draft budget includes money to hire two new city planners, for instance: one to complete the overhaul of the Official Plan, and another for day-to-day planning work.

But a request to increase the opening hours of the Peterborough Public Library didn’t make it into the draft budget: if council wants to hire four part-time people to make it happen, they could have it added to the budget (cost: $36,939 for 2019).

City wages make up 28 per cent of the city services expenditures: the city pays $79.1 million for 880 full-time employees.

There’s also $29,230 added to the city’s rent supplement program in the draft budget, enough to help pay the rent for people in 20 more households in 2019.

That’s meant to save a total of 45 households from eviction, next year, for a total of $610,480 in rent supplements.

What does the proposed budget mean to citizens? If adopted as proposed, it will mean a 2.5 per cent tax increase on your bill. (That’s less than last year, when the tax increase was 2.85 per cent).

For an average taxpayer with a house assessed at $251,700, it would add about $98.52 to the tax bill.

For that homeowner, the total tax bill would be about $4,038.

That’s an all-inclusive increase, meaning it includes the municipal taxes plus the education tax, stormwater and sewer surcharge.

A few significant requests for funding didn’t make it into the draft budget document: those will be up for debate by councillors in January.

If council want to add them back into the budget, it usually means either having to cut an expense or increasing the tax bill higher than planned.

City treasurer Richard Freymond pointed these out, because he said councillors may want to discuss them during budget talks.

One of those items that isn’t funded in the draft budget is a plan to increase ambulance service in the municipality of Trent Lakes, in the county of Peterborough.

Because the city and County of Peterborough share ambulance services, the city was being asked to pay a share to add an ambulance in Buckhorn (where it takes about 12 minutes for an ambulance to come, compared to five minutes in the city).

The cost to the city next year (after taking about $273,000 from the ambulance service reserves, for this purpose) would be about $131,774.

Also not included in the draft budget is an 8.3 per cent increase in funding for Peterborough Public Health.

Medical officer of health Rosana Salvaterra has said she will ask for an increase of 8.3 per cent every year for the next three years, from all municipalities PPH serves (Peterborough County, city, Curve Lake First Nation and Hiawatha First Nation) because the provincial government isn’t increasing its funding even as it demands more services of the health unit. For the city, the increase of 8.3 per cent would cost $769,661 in 2019.

Freymond also noted that the provincial government is reviewing two grant programs, and that Peterborough Police may not get those grant – which would mean police would be $515,000 short.

That $515,000 isn’t in the budget, Freymond noted.

More from Monday’s meeting is at www.peterboroughexaminer.com .