Peterborough County council’s 2019 draft budget will see property taxes rise 2.89%

It began with a hefty 9 per cent increase, but Peterborough County staff and its management team crunched some numbers and bring a slimmer 2019 draft budget to council on Wednesday morning.

The lighter version of the draft budget proposes a 4.4 per cent all-inclusive increase, which means the average taxpayer in the county with a home assessed at $257,750, would pay approximately $32.70 more in taxes this year.

“We discussed every item that was in the budget and felt what we were bringing forward today was what we absolutely needed to have for operations going into 2019,” said the director of finance and treasurer Trena DeBruijn.

“Council is getting its first look at the budget and I imagine this will be a daylong process and we’ll be deliberating throughout and I imagine there will be some changes forthcoming.”

The county’s gross expenditures budget will be bumped up to $77 million this year. Public works will account for 57 per cent of that spending as $23 million of that alone will go to salary and benefits for staff, while a big chunk of that money will go towards infrastructure projects, like road construction and resurfacing.

“Maintaining our bridges is a huge cost as well as reconstruction of our roads,” said DeBruijn.

The county is planning to commence the widening of the James A. Gifford Causeway to a tune of $1.2 million this year, while other road construction projects will total more than $5.8 million.

“We haven’t got the money possible to maintain all the roads that we already have and that’s always been a problem,” said Peterborough County warden J. Murray Jones.

It’s a balancing act — this is the first of three scheduled budget meetings.

“We will continue those discussions and make any adjustments at the upcoming special county budget meeting on Feb. 13,” said Jones. “With a goal to having our budget finalized much earlier this year.”

If all goes as planned, the county council will look to pass the 2019 budget at a meeting scheduled for Feb. 28.