Have your say on town tax hike, budget, Stouffville

YorkReigon.com
Dec. 17, 2015
Sandra Bolan

The municipal portion of Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville residential taxes are proposed to go up 2.5 per cent, which translates to roughly $60 for a single-family home assessed at $553,855.

The 2016 draft budget, released last week, proposes an operating budget of $58.5 million, which includes 11 new full-time employees and a capital budget of $39.3 million.

The draft budget was formally received by council Tuesday night, but garnered no discussion from councillors or the gallery.

The draft budget also includes $2.4 million in new debt requests, which brings the town debt capacity to about 10 per cent. It was 9 per cent in 2015.

The proposed capital budget of $39.3 million is up from $14.3 million in 2015. Funding is anticipated to come primarily from development charges ($15.2 million) and capital reserves ($15.3 million).

Among the items in the draft capital budget is the library/leisure centre expansion, the construction of Coultice Park at Musselman’s Lake and a number of road/sewer/watermain rehabilitation projects.

The requested 11 new full time employees include an HR consultant/policy advisor; HR co-ordinator; bylaw officer; special events co-ordinator; recreation programmer and fire prevention officer.

The net costs associated with the new hires are approximately $437,134, according to the draft budget.

A meeting to solicit input from the public takes place Jan. 12, 7 p.m. The budget and audit committee meeting will take place Jan. 26, 9 a.m. and if needed, Jan. 27, also at 9 a.m. Grants and donation requests will be dealt with Feb. 16, 3 p.m.