COLUMN: Have your say on how Newmarket should invest your taxes

YorkRegion.com
Feb. 26, 2015
Tony Van Bynen

You may have read about the opportunities and challenges facing the Town of Newmarket council with respect to the town’s budget.

The municipal budget is one of the most important responsibilities a Mayor and council have to manage. Under provincial law, a municipality is not permitted to run a budget deficit. 

As a result, we have a delicate balancing act to ensure we have enough money to run more than 80 different business activities and continue to pro-actively plan for future generations.

We are tasked with ensuring public health and safety is maintained with fire services, water and road maintenance as well as waste removal. We want to continue to provide the high quality of life our residents are accustomed to through top-notch programs, parks and trails.

Although your tax bill is mailed from the Town of Newmarket, the town collects taxes for our portion as well as for York Region and the school boards. More than two-thirds of the taxes we collect are dispersed to these institutions. Within the town portion, we have to ensure we meet growing demands such as expanded service and growth and, as you do, we, too, have to deal with rising costs of goods and services such as utilities and construction.

So, as you can see, in order to maintain service levels, sustain quality of life, manage costs, growth and plan for the future, it can be complicated.

At the town, we strive to find as much efficiency in our systems as we possibly can, such as with our energy retrofit program, including LED street lighting and the use of alternate energy sources such as solar energy at town facilities.

Council continues to strive for the most efficient delivery of service and has set goals and priorities to continue to enhance quality of life for our residents and businesses, while maintaining reasonable tax rates.

On behalf of the town and council, we ask for your help in shaping the future of our town. Results from our most recent community survey said Newmarket residents want to be more engaged in the community.

This year, please resolve to get involved.  You can start by filling out our budget survey to inform council how you want your tax dollars invested at www.newmarket.ca.