{"id":62116,"date":"2019-02-14T11:58:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=62116"},"modified":"2019-02-14T14:34:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T19:34:40","slug":"huntsville-council-contemplating-about-a-three-per-cent-tax-increase-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-council-contemplating-about-a-three-per-cent-tax-increase-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntsville Council contemplating about a three per cent tax increase in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So far, Huntsville Council is considering a 2.93 per cent tax increase for 2019. To put that into perspective, if your home has an assessed value of $300,000, you’d be paying roughly $1,143 this year for the Huntsville portion of your property tax bill\u2014an increase of about $33 from 2018.<\/p>\n

Huntsville\u2019s portion represents about 45 per cent of the overall property tax and excludes District Municipality of Muskoka tax and education costs.<\/p>\n

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Some of the more significant items in this year\u2019s draft budget include a 20 per cent increase to road work, bringing the total contribution for roads to about $2.3 million. The municipality will also be adding several new positions to its roster (see the breakdown below). The budget is also projecting $100,000 in revenue from the Municipal Accommodation Tax<\/a><\/span>, which will be used to offset other related expenses to implement the program (see more on that below).<\/p>\n

Another significant item involves increasing the pay grid for non-unionized municipal staff. Initially, the recommendation brought forward in December by the Town\u2019s CAO and Manager of Human Resources, with the support of a consultant, recommended increasing the Town\u2019s current pay bands to the 60th percentile when comparing what similar positions were being paid in other municipalities. That would\u2019ve amounted to an increase in wages of $911,000 to be phased-in over three years. In light of the increase, the recommendation also postponed increases to the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), which would have amounted to about $118,000 in 2019. Following closed session discussions on February 5, 2019, Council emerged with a resolution to implement pay bands that reflect the 35th<\/sup> percentile, which would instead amount to an increase of about $490,000, to be phased-in over three years. They also postponed adding COLA this year. When the increases were initially discussed in December, Huntsville CAO Denise Corry told Council that the benchmark positions used in the compensation market review conducted by the consultant were currently sitting in the 25th<\/sup> percentile, when compared to 11 other organizations\u201410 municipalities and one hospital. See that story here<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Huntsville councillors and department heads have been going through the proposed budget line by line since December, when staff first introduced a status quo budget without any new initiatives that would have seen the tax decrease with the help of reserves. At the time, councillors also heard that if all new initiatives proposed, both by municipal staff and councillors, were to be added in, residents would be looking at a 5.73 per cent tax increase and depleted reserves by 2022. See that story here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

As of Council\u2019s last budget meeting on February 5, councillors and department heads have added new initiatives, taken out others, borrowed from reserves and increased projected revenues in order to arrive at a 2.93 per cent tax increase, which represents a total net levy (the amount of money to be raised through taxes) of $15.3 million, or a 6.87 per cent increase from 2018.<\/p>\n

Some of what\u2019s in<\/strong><\/p>\n