East Gwillimbury faces budget shortfall

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 18, 2014
By Simon Martin

The pressure is on as the town grapples with a $1-million budget shortfall and less income than expected for the coming year, council heard this week.

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.

That’s why they set aside $212,610 to hire firefighters to help alleviate costs of hiring six full-time firefighters in 2015.

With slower than projected assessment growth in 2015, town treasurer Mark Valcic unveiled a preliminary 2015 budget that shows the town faces significant budgetary pressure.

As it stands, the budget has a $1-million shortfall that would represent roughly a 7 per-cent tax increase if the town didn’t want to run a deficit. Valcic made it clear he was not advocating for a 7-per-cent increase, rather, he was warning council it would have to make tough decisions going into the New Year as budget deliberations kick-off.

“It’s going to be a very different budget,” Mayor Virginia Hackson.

The difficulty the town faces is that it is trying to have services in place in anticipation of an influx of new residents but that’s not likely to happen until 2016.

“Not as many people are moving in 2015 as we thought,” Hackson said.

Valcic underlined some ways council could mitigate the $1-million gap that currently exists in the budget. He pointed to finding program efficiencies, non-tax revenues, core program and service reductions and multi-year assessment projections to provide rate stabilization, as all strategies council needs to consider.

The projected cost of adding six firefighters to the payroll is $426,000 a year, including benefits.

The town plans to hire an additional two full-time firefighters a year for the next four years, according to Valcic, adding the total cost of the increased service level will be $1.2 million.

Council reiterated its support for making a full-time fire service a priority.

“That was a really important decision for us,” Hackson said as fellow councillors echoed her sentiments.

Councillor Marlene Johnston said the town will have to whittle down that 7-per-cent number.

The total proposed budget is $35.9 million with $7.8 million designated for community infrastructure and environmental services, $7.3 million for community, parks, recreation and culture, $4.2 million for emergency services and $4.6 million for development services.

There aren’t many major capital expenditures in the budget, Valcic said, as the town undertook significant projects in 2014, including the Queensville Fire Station renovation, the Mount Albert Fire Station rebuild and the land acquisition for an operations centre.

The good news is that, overall, Valcic said, the town’s finances are in an enviable position with the town being debt free.

The average tax rate increase the past four years has been the lowest of York Region’s northern six municipalities.

Residents are encouraged to get involved in the budget process by attending budget meetings and making written submissions.

Council will start budget deliberations Jan. 14 and Jan. 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.