No tax hike in Belleville’s capital budget

Belleville is in the midst of dealing with the financial implications of COVID-19 and the costs involved as it approved its 2021 capital budget.

In just over three hours of deliberations on Tuesday, council approved a budget for capital projects at $36,113,400.

Director of Finance Carol Hinze tells Quinte News this is approximately $3 million lower than last year’s capital budget with no increase in taxes.

It includes a list of infrastructure projects, including major street upgrades, the Bridge Street Bridge arches repair, and parks work.

Mayor Mitch Panciuk tells Quinte News that “It’s a reasonable budget that balances the COVID-19 reality with the fact that we want the city to grow. We’re spending a lot of money but we’re spending it on the priorities of residents. We are not slowing down in building a better Belleville in the future.
“So from the capital side we continue in the best in quality in life improvement, but also economic development, ensuring that we have future growth and that our infrastructure is upgraded. So we spend a lot of money but we’re spending on the priorities of residents…”

“The easy thing would have been to cut spending and we would have paid for it down the road. This way we maintain the momentum we built in the past number of years.”

Panciuk pointed to the fact the casino funding has dropped.

“We’re down to $600,000 for casino revenue as compared to $2.5 million in the previous year. So, we’re asking foe the province to make  that difference through this COVID Resilience Fund and we’re getting pushback.”

He added, “We hope funding the federal and provincial governments have promised is actually delivered because otherwise we have to step in and fund the difference. We received money in 2020 that went to make up for some of the losses we had during the year. We had used our reserve fund to pay for that. We were able to replenish those reserve funds. Looking at 2021 there’s an opportunity for us to get more funding.”

He indicated some of this might not happen.

Mayor Panciuk pointed out the operating budget is not dealt with until spring. He said he’s hoping the employee contracts can be settled “reasonably” before then.

“If we can get some reasonableness from our employees over the next few months we could be in a position where we’re the same as last year in that the tax increase is negligible or a small decrease. But its hard to know what the pressures are on our outside agencies and most of this has got to do with wages and benefits…We are in negotiations with all of our unions. Hastings County, all of the services they provide on our behalf…They’re also feeling expenditure increases. There’s overtime in the police service, overtime on the ambulances, there’s more demand for social services and Long Term Care changes. We hope funding the federal and provincial governments have promised is actually delivered because otherwise we have to step in and fund the difference.”

Some of the items approved in the Capital Budget

Herchimer Avenue and  Dundas Street East to Keegan Parkway reconstruction…additional $2.6 (Total $6.8 million)

Orchard Drive and Pringle Drive …$5.9 million

Sidney Street – Bridge street intersection… $1 million

Sidney and College street improvements… $1 million

Emergency services portable radios… $198,000

City Hall facade… $220,000

Orchard Drive and Pringle Drive… $5.9 million