Kincardine’s decreasing reserve funds mean some tough questions for council and residents in the near future.
A special meeting was held Wednesday night where Treasurer Brenda French presented the status of the municipality’s reserve funds.
Unlike other municipalities, Kincardine makes revenue each year from outside sources like Bruce Telecom, the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, and the Ontario Power Generation business education program at the Bruce site.
Deputy Mayor Laura Haight says they’re losing dividends from these sources this year – a loss in the neighbourhood of 1.1 million dollars.
Add to that the 350 thousand dollar venture they’ve loaned to the new medical clinic, and Haight says the figure is closer to 1.5 million dollars.
She says these decreases will continue.
Council was also presented with a comparison to other communities in Bruce County.
Compared to Saugeen Shores, Kincardine spends about the same, but has a much lower tax rate.
Haight says this means they’ll have to engage the public and find out if residents want to maintain current service levels, and reduce taxes, or would they rather increase taxes to support capital spending.
The treasurer has laid out a timeline for council, that reaches until the next council’s budget discussions in February of 2011.
The first discussion will take place June 10th, and Haight says committees will have reviewed their spending by then.