Clearview Council passed its 2012 budget Monday night, agreeing unanimously to a 3.91 per cent net tax increase and a 5.44 per cent increase in tax-supported Township spending.
The decision came after six months of discussion, taking place over eight working sessions and one town hall public meeting. Nearly every member of Council who commented before the vote said it had been a long, arduous process, but ultimately a rewarding one.
“Every year we get better at this,” said Councillor Thom Paterson, summarizing his reasons for supporting the budget while stressing his opinion that there’s still work to be done.
With increases to the police budget and Simcoe County waste management fees accounting for more than two percentage points and remaining outside of Council’s control, the sentiment among most Councillors was that there was little more that could be done to bring the increase further down.
“There’s always going to be a segment of our population that believes we can do it for less, but I believe this municipality is already running very bare bones,” said Councillor Shawn Davidson. “We did this without making any major service cuts, and I’m proud of that.”
Councillor Robert Walker echoed that thought, saying that Council could have gone further and started cutting services, but that “you have to be careful what you wish for.”
Mayor Ken Ferguson, meanwhile, reiterated his opinion that this is a “maintenance budget – survival without cutting services.”
There was one final debate on Monday night, regarding the now infamous organizational study, which was unanimously inserted into the budget early on in the process, only to be removed, then put back in, and finally removed at the last minute.
With three members of the Township’s senior staff – Clerk Robert Campbell, Director of Public Works Richard Spraggs and Chief Administrative Officer Sue McKenzie – all set to retire within the next two years, most Councillors had supported the organizational study at various times throughout the budget discussions as a way of discovering the most efficient way of moving forward, not just with senior staff but with the Township’s workforce as a whole.
The study, with a predicted cost of $25,000, had been left in the budget after the final Council workshop, but in the days since a memo from McKenzie had circulated stating that enough preliminary work needed to be done by staff that, should Council desire, the organizational study could be put off until early 2013.
Councillor Brent Preston, however, was eager for Council to include the cost in this year’s budget to provide flexibility in case staff was ready to put the study to tender in the fall. He also expressed concern that, if the decision were to be left until next year, it may fall victim to the same pressures that it did this year. “Now is the time,” he said, “for us to vote on this once and for all.”
The inclusion of the study in the 2012 budget would have brought this year’s net increase up to 4.04 per cent, with Clearview’s tax-funded spending going up by 5.66 per cent. The spectre of a four-per-cent-plus tax increase seemed to dissuade most on Council however, and Preston’s amendment to reinsert the study failed to pass, with only Preston and Councillors Doug Measures and Deb Bronnee voting in favour of it.
There still seemed to be a will at the table to make a final commitment to the study, however, so after the budget vote passed unanimously at 3.91 per cent, Councillor Paterson made a motion that Council instruct staff to do all the necessary preliminary work this year so that the organizational study can be done early in 2013. That motion passed unanimously.
Clearview’s 2012 operating budget now sits at $18.7 million, compared to $18.2 million in 2011. The capital budget is $45 million, compared to $35.6 million in 2011, though much of that money will only be spent if the Township secures grants.
The 3.91 per cent net tax increase means that the average family home in Clearview will see an increase of $106 on their 2012 tax bill.
As for the work yet to be completed alluded to by Councillor Paterson, he told Council he still intends to bring forth a motion sometime in May regarding the creation of a budget/finance committee (or “working group,” as he called it on Monday night). That subject did not receive much debate during the meeting, although Deputy Mayor Alicia Savage did note her support for such a mechanism.