{"id":149118,"date":"2024-01-21T15:24:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T20:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/rwddev\/?p=149118"},"modified":"2024-01-21T15:24:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T20:24:37","slug":"2024-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/2024-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up! Mayor defends Huntsville’s 2024 draft budget: A guest post by Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock | Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a guest post on Listen Up! by Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I would like to thank Hugh Mackenzie for providing an opportunity to comment on the  Town\u2019s recently approved 2024 Budget.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As your mayor, it has been my privilege and honour to advocate for the well-being and continued progress of our much-loved town. The proposed tax increase in this budget is essential to meet the ever-growing needs of our community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am confident in the budget we have adopted because it means we can continue to bring quality services to our community and maintain the existing service levels our residents and visitors know and love.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipalities have not been immune to the current economic environment of high inflation and an increase in the cost of goods and services. In addition, the budget was also impacted by population growth and an increase in users accessing our services.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balanced Growth: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our recent Strategic Plan public engagement, our community reinforced its desire to ensure we are well-positioned to grow our community, by balancing the health and well-being of our residents, with future growth\u2026 and we have seen unprecedented growth.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our population grew 11% from 2014-2021, and as we have grown, so have the demands placed on essential services, public safety requirements, and community well-being.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council recognizes this growth needs to be supported more effectively to continue to service the community. It has become imperative to invest in staffing for our public services. Investing in people is investing in our community, and supporting a strong organization that can now respond to our significant recent and future growth. This means we are prepared for enhancing public safety, cyber security, emergency preparedness, handling increases in planning demands, community services, and the impacts this growth has had on our roads, sidewalks, and within the operations division.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another area that is integral to the Town is ensuring that we set aside local share contributions of $230,000 to support the redevelopment of our hospital and capital funding toward the replacement and rehabilitation of our existing Town facilities, (which was provincially legislated in 2015). These factors are new to Town long-term fiscal planning and have greatly impacted the 2024 budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we have been contributing substantially to capital reserves since 2015 to handle large-scale projects, culminating in approximately $7 million in this year\u2019s budget, we are also paying down debt accrued through past investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I love our cherished community assets like the Canada Summit Centre, Algonquin  Theatre, Conroy Park, and McCulley Robertson Sports Park, we continue to pay down the debt incurred to build these incredible facilities built by previous Councils. The repayment of this debt has been ongoing for some time, however, the 2024 budget reflects over $800,000 of debt repayment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council\u2019s long-term capital planning now will reduce our reliance on borrowing and the impacts that debt repayment has on the levy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic Environment: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this current climate, the town has not been immune to cost escalation \u2026. materials have risen dramatically, for example, the cost of road building and line painting materials has risen 44-65% from 2021 – 2023.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– For example, the price of high float in 2022 was $94K per KM, in 2023 the price has  jumped to $117K <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Asphalt in 2022 was $114K, and in 2023 was $159k per km <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– The annual line painting contract in 2022 was $32K and in 2023 was $46K and this was after several components were removed from the contract to bring down the  price <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the approved budget increase is 10.68%, when the estimated District of Muskoka and School Board tax rates are factored in, the total projected property tax bill increase is 6.64%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed tax rate will result in an increase of approximately $137 per $300,000 of property assessment on the Town share of the Huntsville property tax bill.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional Lens: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the tax rate proposed in this budget will maintain Huntsville\u2019s position as the lowest projected municipal tax rate of the Towns in the Muskoka region. Our proposed tax rate continues to keep Huntsville as one of the most competitive municipal tax rates in the province for a town of our size.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe this budget has made some bold moves keeping in mind the long-term fiscal health of the Town and the implications of the anticipated growth in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huntsville’s General Committee approved the draft budget at its January 11 meeting. The budget will go to the Huntsville Council’s regular meeting on January 29 for ratification. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post on Listen Up! by Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock. I would like to thank Hugh Mackenzie for providing an opportunity to comment on the  Town\u2019s recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1904,"featured_media":149124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nListen Up! 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