Peterborough County council approved the 2023 budget Wednesday, managing to trim an originally proposed tax levy increase of eight per cent to 4.93 per cent.
The budget was approved during a council meeting on Wednesday morning. The 4.93 per cent tax levy increase increase includes 2.5 per cent dedicated for infrastructure
The initial draft budget highlighted a total budget of more than $100 million — comprised of $69.8 million for the operating budget (a 4.81 per cent increase over 2022) and $32.4 million for capital projects (a 3.21 per cent increase since 2022).
The county’s budget presentation is available online.
The county says the tax levy increase works out to approximately $19 per each $100,000 of residential assessment and equates to a property tax rate increase of about 3.9 per cent.
The tax levy – which is considered essential spending — sees approximately for capital infrastructure, with the remaining 49 per cent to support county operations and external/shared services.
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Each one per cent levy increase is equal to approximately $507,000 of additional revenue, the county states.
For every dollar of services provided by the county, property taxes cover approximately 52 per cent of expenditures. The remaining 48 per cent comes from other sources.
County Warden Bonnie Clark says staff once again brought forward an “extremely fiscally responsible budget.”
“There are so many outside influences, that are beyond our control and yet together with our finance committee, we are bridging the infrastructure gap and fulfilling our mandate to our residents,” Clark said.
Cavan-Monaghan Township Mayor Matthew Graham, who serves as the county’s fiancee committee chairperson, says new members joining council following the fall municipal elections were quick to adapt and work on the budget.
Peterborough County has a permanent population of over 55,700 which includes the townships of Asphodel-Norwood, Cavan-Monaghan, Douro-Dummer, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen, North Kawartha, Selwyn and the Municipality of Trent Lakes.
“Our finance committee did not lose any momentum even though we had a number of new councillors on the committee,” he said. “They grasped the technology and tools quickly. We met our objectives using our system we implemented last year, and things moved very smoothly.”
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