Erin council approves 2025 budget with 2.4% tax increase

ERIN – Despite some staff reservation on using more of Erin’s tax stabilization reserve, council decided to use that to get 2025’s tax increase down. 

Erin council approved the town’s 2025 budget at a Thursday afternoon meeting and got the tax increase down to 2.4 per cent. 

This worked out to an additional $30 on the town’s portion on property tax bills for an average home assessed at $600,000. 

At the meeting, senior staff members shared some highlights of the budget from their departments such as building a brand new website, a digital transformation of the town’s services, a new aerial ladder truck for the fire department, new recreation programming and initial design work on a new multi-use recreation centre. 

The budget presented was initially coming in at a 2.9 per cent increase or about $57 more on an average home’s tax bill. 

This is just one part of the tax bill for Erin residents. Property taxes go three ways in Wellington County: one portion to the local municipality, one to the upper-tier County of Wellington and one to education. 

Treasurer Wendy Parr said about 72 per cent of residents’ tax bills go towards the county and to education. 

With that in mind, Coun. John Brennan was worried about the potential for a big tax increase coming from the county and asked if they could use more of the tax stabilization reserve fund to bring it down to as low as a 1.9 per cent increase. 

“I think that will be of a great benefit to our residents this year, I think in the years to come things will be a little bit easier for us and that’s what we put the money in the reserve fund for in the first place,” Brennan said. 

Parr said she wasn’t comfortable with that number as she felt dipping too much into reserves would impede the town’s cash flow.

Alternatively, Coun. Bridget Ryan suggested using the extra tax stabilization reserve money to go towards making greening or work towards meeting climate goals a line item. 

Mayor Michael Dehn said this wasn’t the right time for this.

“We have people who are having decisions whether to pay heating bills or put food on the table,” Dehn said. “I support green in principle but not in this economic market.”

Coun. Jamie Cheyne said he was almost alarmed by the treasurer’s comment and suggested a compromise to use less of the reserve than Brennan initially suggested to bring it to a 2.4 per cent increase. 

CAO Rob Adams stressed the budget was already ambitious in its attempt to enhance services but still lean enough that there were no “extra little things” and it reduced reliance on consultants.

He also cautioned against depleting the stabilization fund due to the unknowns that might come along in the years to come. 

“Eventually it catches up to you … Mississauga had hundreds of millions of dollars in reserves when all the development was taking place and then within a few years, they were virtually bankrupt,” Adams said. 

Still, council ended up voting 3-2 in favour of using $60,000 from the reserve to bring the tax rate increase down to 2.4 per cent and then approved the 2025 budget.