Duane Hicks
Town council is close to finalizing its 2015 budget, with a possible residential tax increase of less than two percent.
As of yesterday’s meeting, the combined operating and capital budgets requires a levy increase of $195,078.
A significant part of this amount—$71,482—is due to the five percent levy increase to the town by the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
As reported last week, this increase is because DSSAB needs to spend $195,000 for four social housing roofing projects in the district this year.
Coun. Ken Perry, the Fort Frances representative on DSSAB, felt the board should use its reserve funds instead of making the municipalities pay.
He noted there is $309,000 in the DSSAB reserve fund for social housing and this could be used to pay for the roofing projects.
But Coun. Perry added he feels most of the other DSSAB reps don’t understand what reserves are for or how to put more money back into reserves, noting DSSAB has been saving just $20,000 a year into reserves.
The projected tax increase could be greater than it is.
Council elected to mitigate the levy increase by contributing $50,000 less to its reserve funds in 2015.
However, it still will be putting in $40,000 more than it did last year.
In 2014, it contributed $1.335 million to its reserves. This year, the amount will be $1.375 million.
Coun. Wendy Brunetta said she supported upping the contribution.
“We have a lot of things that we need to repair,” she noted.
“If this is a good year for us and our budget, why would we reduce our reserves?” she wondered.
Council is expected to talk more about tax ratios at its March 30 budget meeting, at which time it also will know the possible impact of the new education tax rates on the figures.
Treasurer Laurie Witherspoon said it’s important to note that even though the town is looking at a levy increase, the tax rate, in fact, is half-a-percent lower than what it was in 2014 due to certain factors, including a reduction in the large industrial class
“Don’t get hung up on the overall levy increase because that doesn’t tell the whole story,” she stressed.
Witherspoon later noted that some property owners’ tax bills will go up from last year while others will go down.
The budget likely will be ready for a vote at the April 13 council meeting.
