2017 Budget will be on 1/23 Council agenda for approval by Council. The draft budget includes a property tax increase of 2.98% on the Township portion; when blended with the York Region increase (2.86%) and the expected 0% increase for Education the blended increase will be 2.32%. For a residential home assessed at $664,000 (average assessed value in 2016) this amounts to an increase of $143/yr. Given anticipated increases in the other YR municipalities King will continue to be in the mid point in terms of tax rate. This budget is particularly important as it includes, for the first time, approval for capital projects over the next two years (2017 & 2018). Here is a link to all the documents of the draft budget. And below is my perspective on important issues and decisions in this budget.

First, I believe there is reason for taxpayer to feel that Township Staff is working with a mindset to reduce cost, to be efficient. With no additional services or program changes expenditures are up .75% which is well below inflation.

Here is a chart showing recommended program changes. I think the changes are appropriate and necessary to meet needs.

As indicated there are recommendations to increase Staff. Here’s my perspective on this:

2 of the 4 (permit administrator and operator/mechanic) are roles which have been fulfilled by contract to date. The work process has been assessed and has been determined to be measurably less efficient.
Increasing our By-law officers is long overdue. There will be increased coverage and proactive enforcement in problems areas such as loitering, ATV’s on roads and trails.

The new role of a Manager of Recreation & Culture is simply required given the amount of activity under the overall responsibility of Director of Parks, Recreation & Culture.

The other major new expense is the tree management program. We are far behind in having (and executing) a program for managing our trees. Given that trees are truly one of the signature features of King this cannot continue. Many of our urban streets have been attached by the emerald ash borer; replacements are required. And we have new woodlots in municipal ownership. This budget item ($225,000) will not only fund planting trees but also implementing annual maintenance programs.

I believe the big “story” in the budget is capital but before diving into any details, for the benefit of those readers who are not familiar with the budget process I would like to point out that the budget decisions about capital projects are not solely about spending the money collected through property taxes; rather it includes decisions on how to use funds collected from developers (DC money i.e. development charges), gas tax funds, funds set aside previous years and grants. Also it includes decisions to take on debt. Hence, a decision to not do a capital project does not translate to equally reducing expenditures so that need for a property tax increase can be reduced.

Capital projects are the big “story” because of its magnitude (in 2017 its $40.8 million and in 2018 its $30.6). . i) We are continuing to increase contributions from the operating budget to capital. ii) The plan to utilize debenture financing is well within our capacity to manage. Specifically, plan in 2017 is to take on additional $9.1 million and in 2018 $8.9 whereas our limit in 2017 is $49 million. (To clarify: it is not my philosophy to take on debt just because we can. Rather, my criteria is whether the projects are valuable and whether we will be able to manage the carrying costs and have the ability to pay it off.  I support it as I believe there is a robust plan for dealing with it )

To see a list of all the capital projects for 2017 and 2018 follow this link and go to pages 53 and 54 of the document. In both these years we will be funding the new Town Hall/Community Use Facility and the new King City Library/King City Seniors’ building. Major source of funding for former is sale of current town hall property; major source of latter is DC reserve. Sidewalk “gaps” in core of King City will be finally fixed over the 2 years; specifically, west side of Keele south of King Road, both sides of King Road west of Keele, both sides of Keele north of McClure up to 15th SDRD. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the projects on the list. (Note: unlike previous years budget numbers for individual projects are not included in the public budget documents. Staff believe that our bids/RFP’s will be better by not providing publicizing the details.)

I am supportive of the budget. No question there are some things which I would like to see accomplished more quickly (e.g. sidewalks); and I regret that some projects are not bigger (e.g. the tree budget– $250,000 sounds like a lot until you know that to take down a dead tree and replace it costs $1,000/tree.)

As I said at the beginning, the budget will be on 1/23 Council agenda for purposes of approving. Final agenda for that meeting and final budget should be on line on Friday (1/20); there is a chance that Finance will make some adjustments to the budget but I anticipate such will be minor. If you have any questions or comments please contact me directly and/or make a comment on the website. The public is very welcome to attend Council on 1/23 to make deputations; if you want to do latter but are unable you can also send your comments to the Clerk (kmoyle@king.ca) and she will distribute to Council.