Stirling-Rawdon council has set its budget for the year.
The tax rate will go up around 5%. That will translate to an extra $21 a month or just over $250 a year in municipal taxes on the average house in Stirling-Rawdon which is assessed at close to $228,000.
Mayor Bob Mullin said although a 5% tax rate increase was higher than council would have wanted, it did a good job of getting it down from the original proposal of 16.5%.
A new roof on the Stirling Theatre and a new large plow truck, each costing close to $250,000 contributed to the need for an increase.
Last year’s tax rate increase in Stirling-Rawdon was 2% and municipal taxes in the community are almost the highest among small rural communities in the area.
The cost of policing will be up this year, to over $1.7 million from over $1.6 million last year. Mayor Mullin says he expects the cost of OPP policing to drop in line
with other similar local municipalities over the next couple of years.Mullin stressed that much of the increase was simply beyond council’s control.
with other similar local municipalities over the next couple of years.Mullin stressed that much of the increase was simply beyond council’s control.
Meanwhile, councillor Sari Watson worried that council had to take too much out of reserve accounts to bring the increase down to 5% stressing draining reserves wasn’t a good idea.
She also called for more formal paperwork to back up expenditure decisions, pointing to the lack of written reporting regarding the purchase of a new plow truck.
Councillor John Rock stressed it was well known that the truck being replaced was 19 years old and required repairs virtually every time it was put to work.
