East Gwillimbury 2017 budget could see taxes go up $84

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 17, 2016
By Simon Martin

Water is wet, winter is cold, and your property taxes are likely to go up again in 2017. East Gwillimbury unveiled its 2017 preliminary budget Nov. 16 and your property taxes are set to rise 5.1 per cent or $84 for the average home.

Town treasurer Mark Valcic said 1.75 per cent of the increase is dedicated to hiring new full-time firefighters while the other 3.35 per cent are destined for unanticipated contractual obligations and programs and services.

Things are still very much in the preliminary stages. Council hasn’t had a chance to sit down with the budget book and look at the numbers.

If history repeats itself, council will slash the increase. In 2014 the preliminary budget had a tax increase pegged around 7 per cent before it was slashed to 3.95 per cent.

In 2015, the preliminary budget had a 3.95 tax increase and it was slashed to 3.7 per cent.

The town’s commitment to grow its full-time fire service to 20 firefighters by 2018 certainly makes that a challenge.

When the town made a transition to a full-time fire service during 2014 budget deliberations, council knew the move was going to represent a significant budget increase.

Before 2014 the town had six full-time firefighters. They hired an addition six in 2014 and two in 2015. The town plans to hire two additional firefighters for the next three years to reach a total of 20 by 2018.

In 2014, council committed to a 1.75 per cent dedicated tax levy increase every year for four years to pay for the program.

The proposed operating budget is $21.5 million

According to Valcic’s report, 84 per cent of the operating budget is funded through taxes with the remaining 16 per cent coming from various user fees, fines and reserve transfers.

Council will spend much of the next two months in budget deliberation. They are scheduled to meet for deliberations Nov. 28, Nov. 30, Dec. 6 and Dec. 13. The hope is to be able to adopt the budget before Christmas at the Dec. 20th council meeting.

For more information about the town’s budget process, you can visit the eastgwillimbury.ca