Duane Hicks
The current budget discussions between the town and library have been necessitated by the recent MPAC reassessment, which has forced the town to trim its budget across the board.
Before 2017 even started, the town had lost $13 million in assessment, equalling a loss of $210,000 in tax revenues, Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown explained at Monday afternoon’s budget meeting.
On top of that, many properties’ assessment will go up–some considerably–and so council is trying to hold the tax levy to zero percent this year to mitigate the impact.
“In order to do that, they’ve got look at all of the services in the community,” Brown stressed. “The library is one service.
“All of our divisions are going through this on a regular basis.
“We don’t have anything against the library,” he added. “We think [they’re] doing a great job and I think people should hear that.
“But council, they can’t represent everyone this time,” Brown warned. “They’re stewards of the town–that means we have to balance a budget and no one should get off scot-free.
Brown said the town’s tax revenue situation will get worst if the mill is ever demolished. The town continues to receives taxes for the shuttered complex right now but won’t if it’s gone for good.
Going through this service reduction exercise now is useful in preparation for that possible future, he remarked.
“We’re in this together,” Brown said. “Council is basically doing their due diligence. You elected them to make decisions.
“They have to balance a budget.
“Administration was given direction to look at all of the services in the community that could be looked at,” added Brown.
“We’re not picking on the library, we’re just looking at ways to get this done,” he reiterated.
Brown said administration and council wants to provide the “soft services”–after all, that’s why people live here.
“I don’t like the politics that are in the paper,” he noted. “I like that people are open and we start thinking about this.
“We’ve never started off a budget like this before; our assessments have always gone up . . . it’s a very challenging year.”
Coun. Wendy Brunetta said councillors have hard choices to make.
She’s personally heard differing opinions from the public about the possible cutting of library services.
One resident phoned her in support of the library, telling her they’d even take a tax increase if it meant preserving the current level of library services.
But another caller said it’s about time council made cuts to the library, and that they never use the library, their family doesn’t use it, and therefore they shouldn’t have to pay for it.
“You get both sides of the equation,” Coun. Brunetta said. “When you look at our population and how many people have memberships, you realize it’s a small portion of our population.
“It’s a great service,” she added. “I love it, I use it, but again, should the majority of our population pay for something they don’t use?”
Due to further reductions in the town’s operating budget at Monday’s budget meeting, it’s likely council won’t ask the library board to reduce its budget by $26,000, as was discussed at the Feb. 21 budget meeting.
Treasurer Laurie Lindberg noted the four-year average of library spending is $480,281 per year, which is about $10,000 lower than the levy they’re asking for this year.
Right now, the year-end cost of operating the library for 2016 is $483,667.
The levy the library board asked for last year was $493,191.
Coun. Brunetta suggested that since the library spent $9,500 less than it budgeted for last year, maybe it could be asked to hold its spending to that same level this year and it won’t affect services.
Council is hoping some decisions can be made at its next budget meeting March 20.
