Town budget sitting at 4.78 per cent increase

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Although it won’t be finalized until the end of January, Tillsonburg’s budget is presently sitting at a 4.78 per cent increase.

On the average residence, assessed at $242,000, this represents an increase of $143.74 annually.

The budget started with an increase in the tax levy of 13.69 per cent. After the first budget session, council directed staff to come back with an increase of 3.08 per cent, or the equivalent to the Consumer Price Index hike, plus the increase due to policing. The town was originally saddled with a bill of $804,481, or a 3.88 per cent increase, for retroactive police wage settlements passed down from the province. The province since cut that number drastically, taking much of the increase for municipalities. In Tillsonburg’s case, the increase for policing is now only 0.79 per cent.

In the Dec. 16 budget session, staff came back with $1.2 million in cuts from the budget to meet the target. These reductions included limiting new personnel, using 2024 surplus funds to offset 2025 labour costs, reducing overall training costs and allocations for general supplies, as well as removing funding for community grants.

At the meeting, council heard from BIA executive director Mark Renaud about the budget for the organization. The BIA is funded through a levy on downtown businesses in the core area. In addition, the town provided $20,000 in capital funding last year for improvements in the downtown. Renaud asked for this again. He also shared the BIA plan to partner with Turtlefest, which brings 30,000 people into the downtown, and the issues associated with the unhoused.

“They’re making such a mess and there is a cost attached to this. We need some help,” Renaud said.

Coun. Bob Parsons asked what the impact would be if the $20,000 grant was cut.

Renaud said the BIA would either need to find more money or cut something.

“The amount of things that are damaged because of the unhoused situation, we need to replace those things,” he added.

Council later included the $20,000 funding in the budget to date.

While looking at council’s budget, Coun. Chris Rosehart asked if there is a policy on how many conventions council members can attend.

“The mayor and deputy mayor should go to every one, they’re the important ones whereas councillors should trade off who goes,” she said.

Coun. Chris Parker said council members need to be aware of who is attending which function.

“I think we need to be careful and have communication amongst ourselves about who is going,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Dave Beres, who sits on the board of the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, said costs of the conventions are going up. He noted costs have doubled in some instances.

“This is where our opportunity is to meet with provincial people,” he said. “At the ROMA conference in January, that’s where we make appointments to talk to them about funding for health care, funding for water.”

Mayor Deb Gilvesy said she has had discussions with other mayors and the consensus seems to be the conventions are getting more expensive and the effectiveness is being questioned. She said booking appointments with MPPs at Queen’s Park is an alternative.

“We’re asking everybody to cut and I feel we should all be doing our part,” she said.

Coun. Kelly Spencer asked if the budget increase requested by the Stations Arts Centre was in the budget, which she was told it wasn’t. She was told she could present a motion to include the funding during that meeting or ahead of the next one. At present, the budget contains an inflationary increase to the Station Arts Centre.

Parker spoke out against the cuts to funding community events such as Canada Day fireworks and Turtlefest’s movie on the lawn.

“We’ll see a big uproar if we take these things away,” he said.

Parsons suggested there could be other ways to fund these events through businesses or people in the community. In the end, funding for the events is still in the budget.

On the staffing front there was one Full Time Equivalent (FTE) added to the public works department. Another position for a Manager of Innovation and Strategic Innovation is also part of the budget, being funded in the short term through the labour reserve and elimination of a temporary FTE position.

It’s expected the budget will be finalized during a meeting at the end of January.