Wilmot passes 10.8% tax increase
With its eyes on replenishing reserves to pay for infrastructure repairs, Wilmot council has passed a 10.8 per cent tax hike, 0.2 per cent more than it started with when budget discussions began in January.
“The township has the lowest capital reserves per capita in the province and the situation is impairing our ability to repair and replace our aging infrastructure,” interim chief financial officer Dan Elliott told council.
The township faces annual capital expenditures of about $11 million per year for repairs and replacement. Funding in the budget is less than $5 million.
“Only those projects that are most important or being most urgent are being completed, with this short list exceeding our available cash on hand,” Elliott said. “That requires us to issue debt to finance and pay for fixing broken roads and things like that.”
The debt financing approach isn’t sustainable, Elliott told council.
“If something came up in August or September this year and you asked me for $1 million, I would struggle. The only other approach to address this issue is to aggressively address the amount of tax levy that is allocated to capital projects and reserves, which must come through higher taxes.”
Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has inquired about the township’s reserve fund position, according to staff.
“We pointed to our draft 2024 budget and said we’ve got a significant effort to address that,” Elliott said. “It can’t all be done in one year, but we’re working on it.”
Outside of increasing taxes, Coun. Lillianne Dunstall said she’s unsure if people understand the impact the current situation could have if the province intervened — though such instances are rare, Elliott said.
The financial situation has been compounded by years of poor policy and decision-making, said Coun. Kris Wilkinson, who said he struggled with an increase of such magnitude and voted against the budget, which passed in a 4-2 vote.
Coun. Harvir Sidhu also voted against it, saying he felt more could have been done to reduce the increase.
The township has delayed capital projects where possible, according to Elliott’s report to council. Its 10year capital forecast has increased by 25 per cent to $193 million from $156 million.
The tax hike will add about $123 per year to the average assessed home’s property tax bill. Wilmot property taxes are relatively low compared to other jurisdictions and the area has a higher-thanaverage annual household income, Elliott noted.
Combined with the regional tax increase and education taxes, the average home in Wilmot is facing a 7.7 per cent increase in total billing, approximately $310 for the year.
Of the 10.8 per cent increase, 3.1 per cent is attributed to inflation with 2.8 per cent due to increased capital funding. Other reasons include rising insurance costs, debt repayment, reduced provincial funding as well as the township’s plan to take over a building for administrative purposes.
Average bimonthly bills for water will increase from $85.34 to $93.09. Those on water and sewer can expect to see the charge go from $192.06 to $211.09 on average.