A major shock for Grey Highlands council could translate into an even bigger shock for ratepayers.
Mayor Brian Mullin says their Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding is being slashed by almost 400-thousand dollars in 2010.
Mullin says they knew about the coming cuts to OMPF – but they never guessed it would be this much at once.
He says they started working on a draft budget back in October with projections of a 60-thousand dollar reduction.
Mullin says with one per cent of tax equal to about 47-thousand dollars — the 400-thousand dollar funding loss translates to a 9 per cent tax hike.
Mullin says Grey Highlands was already looking at an 8 or 9 per cent tax hike in the draft budget for 2010 with significant increases in the OPP contract.
The mayor says when you put all that together – ratepayers could be looking at a massive 20 per cent tax hike.
Mullin says they’ll almost have to start over with the budget process and take a serious look at services.
He says they will also send letters to the provincial government and Bruce Grey Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch expressing their concern.
Grey Highlands council will next tackle the budget on January 6th.