'Tough decisions' for Georgina's 2017 budget: CAO

YorkRegion.com
Dec.13, 2016
Heidi Riedner

The town's 2017 draft budget tabled Dec. 14 involves some “tough decisions” for elected officials, according to the town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).

Just over $36.7 million was required from the tax levy to support services and programs under a total  $69.4 million 2016 budget for the town.

That represented a bump in property taxes for residents of $73 per household based on an average assessment of $297,070.

Combined with the $11 million for water and sewer rates and other funding sources such as user fees, capital grants and federal gas tax, your tax dollars pay for things like road maintenance, including snowplowing and sanding; emergency services; arts, culture, libraries and recreation programs; arenas, pools and gyms; garbage and recycling; parks and trails; and economic development.

Moving forward, elected officials will have to address a number of funding gaps identified in a total of 35 studies and master plans completed during the past five years that project multimillion dollar costs to upgrade or simply maintain both service levels and capital assets over both the short and long term.

For example, the town needs to spend almost $43 million between 2017 to 2036 to maintain, repair and rehabilitate its existing buildings and facilities, according to the recently completed building conditions assessment.

Similarly, replacement of existing halls for Georgina’s fire department was recommended in the fire services master plan over what essentially boils down to good money being thrown at bad buildings. The plan also calls for an additional hall in Keswick to address growth.

The town’s much-anticipated long-term financial plan presented last week by Hemson Consulting also makes reference to 20 additional firefighters, as well as equipment, to address master plan recommendations.

A decision will also have to be made sooner rather than later regarding an aging Civic Centre that according to consultants will cost $5 million right out of the gate to address health, safety and accessibility issues, let alone the fact it is at capacity and considered inefficient in terms of both customer service and functionality for 230 full-time and 60 seasonal town staff.

If a new administrative building is added to the $30+ million estimated for the construction of a new Multi-Use Recreational Complex (MURC) in the south end of Keswick, that adds another $21 million to the cost.

The costs balloon to $60 million if the proposed library and fire hall locations are added on to the MURC location, to the tune of $5 million and $3.9 million respectively.

In addition, development charges will not cover an additional $11.1 million required to provide the necessary capital infrastructure to service anticipated development and population growth over the next 10 years.

An additional $4.1 million related to the acquisition and construction of the new infrastructure is required, as well as an extra $6 million for long-term asset management costs.

An estimated annual funding gap of approximately $3.6 million has also been identified regarding the town’s road infrastructure.

Council’s job during the next two months before the 2017 budget’s proposed adoption in February will be to allocate “scarce dollars against the variety of competing interests,” CAO Winanne Grant said.