Morris-Turnberry staff pitches modest tax increase, council wants it lower
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Tuesday morning, Morris-Turnberry Council discussed its proposed 2025 budget. This year, Treasurer Sean Brophy is proposing a municipal tax rate increase of 9.03 per cent, with a levy increase of 12.37 per cent.
The general consensus amongst councillors present at the meeting was that the tax rate increase would optimally remain as low as possible, but a practical route to keeping the inevitable annual increase to a minimum remains murky.
Few places to make cuts were identified by members of council. While Councillor Jamie McCallum favours limiting the municipal tax rate increase to three or four per cent, with five at a maximum, he didn’t offer specific suggestions on where reductions should be made.
Chief Building Official and Drainage Supervisor Kirk Livingston presented his proposal for modest increases in the budget for each of the departments he oversees, which includes municipal drains, the building department, property standards and animal control.
The drainage department’s budgets for maintenance and capital projects are projected at $240,000, and $700,000, respectively. Both of these costs are expected to be fully funded through a combination of grants and recovery from landowners.
The drainage department’s draft also includes a minor budgetary increase for conferences and expenditures. “I’m on two committees with the Drainage Superintendents Association of Ontario (DSAO). I’m on the board of directors with the DSAO, and I’m also on the Drainage Action Working Group, which is going to be beneficial to our municipality… I’m not sure how many meetings will be entailed with that, but I had to increase that budget slightly.” Livingston explained to council.
The building department’s total operational revenue for 2025 is predicted to be $158,000, with an additional $21,137 being transferred out of reserves, which would bring the building department’s total revenue up to $179,137. Building department expenses are projected at $229,422, which would make the department’s net cost to the municipality $50,285 for 2025.
“Revenue in the building department has not been as high as we’ve hoped for in the last few years,” Livingston explained. The building department’s 2025 budget includes small expenditures, such as a $700 increase over last year to purchase replacement cell phones.
In the animal control department, Livingston is requesting an additional $10,000 to establish a dog counter for Morris-Turnberry. He told council that this upfront cost would be quickly recouped through an increase in dog tag revenue.
Deputy-Mayor Kevin Freiburger commented on the difficulty of finding fat to trim in the 2025 budget. “Having looked through, I honestly don’t think there’s a whole lot of extra frivolities or anything in there,” he said. “I would have a hard time trying to decide where to make cuts. Obviously, you always want to have as low an increase as possible, but how do you do that without getting farther behind, while still planning for the future?” Freiburger went on to espouse a municipal tax rate increase of roughly five per cent, but he also admitted that he was unsure as to how that would be achieved. “Good luck trying to get to that,” he said. “I see the nine per cent and look through the numbers and… good luck.”
The lean budget trend continued when Director of Public Works Mike Alcock presented his department’s proposed 2025 budget. A small increase of $250 is being requested for the operating budget of Morris-Turnberry’s parks and cemeteries. “Everything is pretty much status quo, there’s just a small overall increase in operations,” Alcock said. There are no capital expenditures expected for parks and cemeteries this year.
The Belgrave water system requires upgrades to its aging infrastructure, and the pumping station requires upkeep. Proposed capital expenditures for 2025 include $10,000 for a utility locator, and $200,000 for SCADApack and water system controller replacements. “The SCADApack and the program logic controller… all those things have a little bit of a shelf life, and we’re at the shelf life, so it’s time to retool,” Alcock explained. “The controllers are wearing out and breaking, which means a person has to come there and fix them. And the program logic controllers that we have, you can neither get parts for them anymore, nor are they supported by the software. So it’s kind of a custom fix, every time they come… it obviously comes at a cost, but that’s why we put money into reserves.”
At the Tuesday meeting, the proposed 2025 water rate of $1,322.09 per user was approved by council, which is a 7.06 per cent increase over last year. These user fees are expected to bring in $211,035 in 2025, and the majority of the remaining cost for the Belgrave water system upgrades will be covered by transfers from reserve funds. Alcock also recommends $74,435 be contributed to reserves to shore up funds for foreseeable future expenditures.
Councillor Sharen Zinn mentioned that she would like to see staff find a way to reduce the proposed tax rate increase of 9.03 per cent. “I’d like to see it under five - staff’s job is to come up with how to do that,” she laughed. On a more serious note, Zinn reiterated that a lower municipal tax rate would be preferable. “I think times are tough out there for everybody. If we can bring it down under five, that would be good,” she said.
The 2025 roads budget contains some typically hefty expenditures, like a proposed $2,327,000 for maintenance and overhead. “That’s the majority of the work that we do to keep our roads safe,” Alcock pointed out. That total includes $48,000 for grass cutting, $100,000 for grading, $170,000 for snow removal, and $750,000 in overhead expenses, among other essential line items.
Proposed capital road construction projects for 2025 include $115,000 for hot mix road surfacing on Queen Street, McKinnon Drive, and Black Lane in Bluevale. “It’s not that we don’t have a lot more needs, but that’s as far as we can go without adding a whole lot more money to the budget,” Alcock explained. $445,000 for surface treatment on Glenannon Road and Salem Road is also being requested. Additionally, $45,000 for culvert replacements and $10,000 for paving on Kate Street, Princess Street, and Mary Street are included in this year’s draft roads budget. The total proposed road construction budget for 2025 is $615,000. Repairing the bridge on Salem Road is the only proposed bridge work project this year, with a potential budget of $475,000.
The draft roads budget also includes $735,000 for equipment and machinery expenses. Two large suggested purchases for 2025 are a $250,000 backhoe and $65,000 for a pickup truck.
Councillor Jodi Snell both concurred with Zinn’s sentiment about a lower tax rate increase and expressed respect for Alcock’s realistic approach to the roads budget. “Of course, I’d like to see it under five [per cent], but it’s difficult because high-ticket items are work that needs to be done, right? We don’t want to let our roads start to disintegrate because then we’re going to be paying more money, probably, next year, right? And the more that you let those things go, the more expensive the increase is going to be in the following years and we don’t want to push that on anybody else… we live in a rural community. We need our roads, we need our bridges, we need equipment - that’s what we need, so, best of luck to [staff] - we appreciate you.”
Mayor Jamie Heffer also expressed appreciation for the efforts of staff to keep the tax rate low while still keeping the municipality running effectively. “I’ve always been a proponent of trying to keep our budgets as close to inflationary movement as possible and it just seems like that is almost impossible to do anymore,” he lamented. “I wish I had a better answer on how to address it but I don’t. It just seems to be hard… I think we have a responsibility to give staff the opportunity to know what we’re thinking and see where they think they can change the budget to match that. Difficult, I think.”
Staff are now taking the draft budget back to the drawing board with council’s desire for a lower municipal tax rate in mind, and will soon return with an updated draft of the 2025 budget.