Council approved the 2015 Budget at our 1/26 meeting.  As our local papers have covered it very extensively I will not review many details.  Combined with the anticipated regional increase of 3.97% and the 0% increase from Education, the impact on King Township is 2.69%.  For the average residential property owner (assessed value of $614,000) the increase is $156/yr.   Here is press release.

Very importantly we have once again added to our infrastructure reserves; this year we added $722 thousand.  As became very clear during our Budget discussions we must get a strategy for this as our infrastructure investment is huge ($450 million.)  Fortunately alot of our infrastructure is very new so we do have many years/decades to build the reserves to replace it; but, we need to really get started and we need to see the path.

And again we increased the amount of property tax for capital works; this year we added $222,000 which takes the total to $943,000.   As we have a significant backlog of work and as Council has heard loud and clear that people want roads (and the bridges & culverts) and sidewalks repaired we need to put money against this.

Finally, we are taking action to fill some gaps in our Staffing. Each new role has been carefully assessed for value and need; I feel very comfortable with these decisions.