Wellesley council approves 2025 draft budget, in principle, with 3.94 per-cent levy increase, growth inclusive

Ward 4 Coun. Lillianne Dunstall and acting CAO Greg Clark faced an emotional crowd of nearly 300 Wilmot residents Saturday afternoon in New Hamburg. Facebook photo

Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

At its final budget meeting of the year on Dec. 18, 2024, Wellesley council approved in principle the township’s draft 2025 budget with a 3.94 per-cent levy increase – down more than one per cent from the initial 4.99 per-cent levy increase proposed in the budget’s original draft.

Township staff first presented the draft 2025 budget at council’s kickoff budget meeting at the end of the November. The budget was initially presented with an $8.14-million property tax levy increase – nearly $672,000 or nine per cent higher than what was levied from property owners in 2024. However, the township also saw roughly 3.7 per-cent growth, representing an increase by roughly $301,000 to the tax base. That growth will lessen the burden of this year’s levy increase on ratepayers.

At the Dec. 18 budget meeting, council approved three cost-saving measures to reduce the overall budget impact on ratepayers by 1.05 per cent or roughly $82,000. The first and most impactful of those cost-saving measures is the deferral of hiring new staff in the recreation and finance departments until April 1, shifting nearly $61,700 in new staffing costs from from the 2025 budget to 2026.

“We’ve modelled out the three-month (deferral), which seemed to be council’s preference in the last meeting and that would save us about $62,000 in 2025, which translates into a levy impact of -0.81 per cent,” said township director of corporate services Jeff Dyck. “If we do two months versus three months, that results in savings of $41,000 and a levy impact of -0.53 (per cent).”

“And then correspondingly, the amount we lower it by this year, that is what you add next year,” added township CAO Rik Louwagie. “So, if you do a two-month deferral, we automatically start with a 0.53 (per-cent) increase in 2026.”

“I understand the implications in 2026 – that’s how it is – but we don’t know what 2026 is going to be like,” Mayor Joe Nowak said of deferring the new hires until April. “Maybe it will be easier to manage. Maybe it won’t. We can’t see the future.”

Council also opted to reduce the proposed wage increase for non-union township staff from 2.8 per cent this year to 2.3 per cent, saving the township $15,558 or another 0.18 per cent of the proposed levy. While council landed on that reduction, Coun. Lori Sebben suggested reducing that increase even further.

“Whether you’re an employee of the municipality or a corporation or a small business, I think all employees must be accountable to their customers and, in this case, that would be the Township of Wellesley residents,” Sebben said. “ … With the complaints I’ve heard over the past year, I feel like giving the 2.3 (per cent) CPI (Consumer Price Index) increase would be unfair to our residents. If the addition of staff helps with the customer-service end of things (in 2025), then I think that 2.3 (per cent) or whatever the CPI is next year would be fine, but until that time, I have a hard time saying we should give that 2.3. I think a half a per cent less or (a) 1.8 (per-cent increase would be better).”

In response to Sebben’s suggestion and without offering specifics on the complaints Sebben spoke of, Coun. Shelley Wagner said she didn’t think customer complaints in one area of the township’s operations warranted a reduction to the wage increase for non-unionized employees across the board. Though she said she felt the original 2.8 per-cent increase proposed by staff was too high, she didn’t think a 1.8 per-cent increase was justified for the township’s otherwise hardworking staff.

“We’re dealing with two different things,” Coun. Derek Brick said. “We’re dealing with wages and we’re dealing with customer service. Yes, we have to look at that together and I think we can ask council (to have staff look at) better customer service, but I don’t think we can punish based on customer service. I think 2.3 (per cent) fits within our policy and I know we’ve knocked it down in other years, so I wouldn’t support going below 2.3.”

Brick said he would support a review of the customer service policy in the new year, which he said would address the complaints from the public and the concerns raised by council. Nowak also noted its important to maintain competitive wages for staff to ensure the township can attract and maintain top talent.

The final cost-saving measure approved by council was reduction in spending on HR software by $5,000 or 0.06 per cent of the proposed levy.

The 2025 draft budget also includes a proposed 0.75 per-cent greening levy amounting to just shy of $60,000 to be collected from ratepayers to combat climate change and support greenhouse-gas-emission reduction efforts locally, as well as a proposed one per-cent infrastructure levy amounting to nearly $80,0000 to help the township replenish its capital reserves and tackle its long-term infrastructure deficit.

The total tax levy to be collected next year is now at just over $8.06 million, roughly $595,000 more than last year’s levy.

If the township’s 2025 budget bylaw is passed at an upcoming regular council meeting, Wellesley township property owners will see a 3.94 per-cent increase to the township portion of their property tax bills. For an average home assessed at just over $397,000, that would equate to an additional $58.19 this year.

Council will set the township’s 2025 tax policy – the policy that determines how the levy is shared amongst the different property classes – at a future meeting once the budget bylaw is passed.