Orangeville council would have approved an about 2.2 per cent tax hike this year, if not for the county's decision to transfer waste collection duties up the chain.
Following its 2013 budget deliberations, Orangeville council green lighted a 3.8 per cent reduction for the town portion of tax bills on Monday night (Feb. 4).
Of course, council began its annual round of budget talks about six per cent in the black, as Dufferin County’s waste transfer had taken an about $1.8 million burden off Orangeville's fiscal ledger.
“If we hadn’t have uploaded that, yes, we would have had an increase in the budget,” said Orangeville’s deputy treasurer Karen Craggs.
Meanwhile, Dufferin has approved a 7.3 per cent hike for 2013, but without its waste transfer, that’d actually equate to an about two per cent reduction on the county portion of tax bills. The education tax levy also went down slightly with a drop of about 0.09 per cent.
After peeling back the layers created by the waste transfer, the town portion, or the Orangeville share, on tax bills is really the only one of the three subject to a tax increase. When blended together — the county, education and town levies account for varying shares of the total tax bill — the overall tax decrease for Orangeville households equals about 1.23 per cent.
“Council was able to this year have a tax decrease,” said Mayor Rob Adams. “While we can’t do everything for everyone, I think we found a very good balance overall.”
As a result, the average Orangeville household with a property assessed at $338,000 will pay a total of $4,748 on their tax bill in 2013. From that, a combined $2,064 will go to the county and education levies, leaving $2,684 destined for the coffers at Orangeville’s town hall.
Now, there are some extenuating circumstances beyond the county’s decision to upload waste collection driving Orangeville’s reduction, including a $1.8 million annual dividend payment — $1.4 million more than expected — from Orangeville Hydro in 2013.
Between the waste upload and the hydro dividend, the town gained about $3.2 million, or a little more than 11 per cent, in unexpected budget savings, before even sitting down to map out its fiscal blueprint for 2013.
Looking to the future, council has put $1 million of that hydro dividend into reserves — the rest will help offset deflating revenues in other areas. As a result, the town has about $5.4 million sitting in its reserve bank account to start 2013.
“Reserves have gone up, from virtually being depleted,” Adams said. “We’re headed in a very healthy direction.”
On another note, the mayor noted the town has paid off about $10 million in debt during the last five to six years. During that time, he said the municipality’s debt has actually decreased to about $15 million from $25 million.
“It has come down significantly,” Adams said. “Council has made excellent progress at paying down the town’s debt.”