Kincardine Councillors were back at the table last night going through this year’s budget.
Councillors have decided to rely heavily on reserve funds leftover from the pre-amalgamation municipalites.
That has allowed almost all capital projects to stay in the budget, including road paving projects and 110 thousand dollars for a new tourism and gateway signage project.
The municipality wants to eliminate the pre-amalgamation reserves and instead develop funds that cover the entire municipality.
The 450 thousand dollars for a new fire pumper truck is still in the budget, but council is still waiting for the results of a study on fire equipment reliability before it will decide if the truck really should be purchased this year.
Mayor Larry Kraemer is pleased with how the process has gone so far, but he says they’re still going to have to deal with the fact they’re relying heavily on reserves.
Kraemer says they’ve been attempting to gradually eliminate the pre-amalgamation reserves over the past couple of years and simplify the reserve system, but not enough money is being raised through taxes to cover future capital projects.
Kraemer says it’s still too soon to tell what the final result of the budget process will be because items on the consideration list still have to be gone over.
Those include the controversial 125-thousand dollar organizational review.
Council could also decide at that time to put more money into the reserve funds that cover the entire amalgamated municipality.
Due to the reliance on reserves, the levy increase at this stage is only just over two percent, but that will likely increase. That would mean an extra $18.00 on the tax bill for a property worth $150 thousand dollars.
Council and staff originally targeted the increase at three percent, but it could go as high as four or five.
Kincardine budget talks continue on March 31st.