MINTO – While Minto council didn’t love the number attached to the proposed property tax increase, they were in agreement it was likely necessary to avoid anything outrageous in the future.
The Town of Minto is looking at a 6.5 per cent increase on its portion of residents’ property tax bill. In Wellington County, tax bills are divided three ways with a portion going to the lower-tier municipality like Minto, one portion to the upper-tier municipality County of Wellington and one portion to education.
Town treasurer Gord Duff said he wasn’t able to provide what kind of impact this would have on the average taxpayer because there were too many unknown variables at this time such as the county’s projected increase and the property reassessment values.
Last year, a 4.88 per cent increase worked out to an additional $24.36 on the average assessed home for the town’s portion of the tax bill.
Duff said the biggest drivers of this year’s property tax increase are the four per cent cost of living adjustment raise for staff, higher cost of insurance premiums, higher cost of heat and hydro, and vehicle repairs.
After town managers gave council the rundown of the operating budget in their departments, Mayor Dave Turton asked if council was alright with what was being presented.
“I’m very comfortable. If that’s what it costs to run this town I’m okay with that,” said Coun. Paul Zimmerman. “If we start spending our reserves just to lower that, what’s that going to do … it’s going to delay the inevitable.”
Deputy mayor Jean Anderson couldn’t say she was happy with 6.5 per cent but conceded everything is going up in price.
“Have to pay the piper at some point,” Anderson said. “It will be interesting what the county does to our rate.”
Other councillors also agreed they could live with this increase if it gave them room in the future to avoid larger increases.
No approvals were given at this meeting and the capital budget is expected to be presented at a meeting on Nov. 26.
