Once all the upper tier tax rates were figured into the Township of Clearview’s budget, the municipality ended up with extra money.
With county and education taxes coming in lower than expected, Clearview will collect $363,727 more than it budgeted after council decided to stick with the 1.95 per cent overall increase, as originally planned.
The money will be set aside for allocation to reserves to be determined when the asset management plan is completed in September 2015.
“The province is uploading things from the upper tier and not from us so this is our opportunity to get that funding back with the other hand the province is taking away our general operating grant, they have reduced it by about a third in the last three years,” said treasurer Edward Henley. “Even though our operational funding from the province as a rural municipality is going down we are still allocating money towards replacing assets because we don’t want to rely on hoping for a grant from the province, we want to make sure we have those funds available. We don’t want to put everything onto loans because there’s only a certain amount that you can borrow.”
At a May 11 meeting, councillors voted to put the money into reserves and debate its exact use at a later date.
“Before we jump for joy looking at out little budget, we have to look at ourselves,” said Councillor Kevin Elwood.
He and Councillor Thom Paterson did not support putting the money away, saying it should be passed on to the taxpayer. Both councillors have been advocating for a reduction in spending in order to reduce taxes.
“We did not find savings,” said Paterson. “We are actually collecting more tax than we need to, if you want to put it that way.”
Deputy Mayor Barry Burton suggested a certain amount of the money, $100,000 perhaps, be allocated for youth programs.
“I think it’s time we start investing in our youth,” said Burton… “It would be nice to go back and say taxes are only going up three per cent but for practicality, it is good to set the money aside.”