Image: Huron County Courthouse
Huron County Council is working to finalize a budget for 2024.
On Wednesday, council heard from Director of Corporate Services and Treasurer Michael Blumhagen, who outlined what kind of levy increase that the county would be considering.
The draft budget that was presented showed a 9.65% levy increase, which would bring an average residential increase in property tax to $123 per household.
Council also heard from senior staff to proposals that would affect the levy, including three staffing proposals from Economic Development, Cultural Services, and Homelessness program to change three positions from one-year contracts to full-time permanent.
Council chose to keep those staffing positions as contract positions.
Public Works had three budget requests that would affect the levy, namely Phase 2 of the Wingham Yard expansion, which is to create storage space and a workshop large enough for current snow clearing vehicles. Phase 1 was completed last year.
Public Works is also asking for funding for a crash truck attenuator, which would follow the province’s rules for safety for tasks such as line painting, which the county covers for every lower-tier municipality except for Howick.
During discussions, several councillors agreed that they would be happy with an increase of 5-6%, and a proposed ideal number by councillor Jim Ginn was 5.54%, which would include items like the crash truck attenuator for Public Works, as well as new generators for Huronlea and Huronview Homes for the Aged, which was brought to council’s attention earlier this year.
Staff has been directed to draft a final budget that would stay between a 5 and 6% increase, and will present it to council at the meeting to be held on March 6th.
The ideal budget with such an increase would also need to rely on reserve funding to keep it at the target amount.