The Municipality of Tweed will be seeing a tax levy increase of 15% for 2025.
The increase will see the municipality bring in over $6.2 million in taxes.
Mayor Don DeGenova says a percentage of the tax levy increase is to prepare for potential high costs for OPP services next year.
“Two per cent of that is putting money aside to cover the 4.4% increase in op costs that we would have had this year. Now, the province has agreed to cover the cost this year, but they will not commit to covering them next year. So we thought we’ll put, as most municipalities are in Hastings, putting 2% away, and we’ll draw on that next year, which will help lower the actual levy,” DeGenova explained to Quinte News.
“Then if the government does come forward and say yes, if they will cover those costs, well, then we’ll put that reserve into lowering the cost whatever our taxes will be next year.”
DeGenova says 1.5% is to fill up reserves and another 2% is being used to pay the previous council’s deficit.
“They had a deficit of $270,000 at the end of their term. This council agreed to, well, we had to pay it back, and we’ve done that – $90,000 a year for three years. This will be our last year,” DeGenova said.
“So when you take those things into account. We’re down to about 9.5% which is still high, but we need to set aside money.”
In 2024, the municipality saw a 17.8% increase in its tax levy, a double-digit increase that at the time DeGenova said would likely continue while they await more funding from both the provincial and the federal government.
DeGenova says he expects the double-digit tax increases to continue.
“I made a commitment last year when we raised 17.8% that throughout my mandate, until my term is finished, we will be looking at double-digit tax increases,” Mayor DeGenova reiterated.
“One of the things is we didn’t raise our taxes the way we should have in the past, and so we have a lot of catching up to come, but at least we used to get a third and a third funding, a third from the province and a third from the feds. Neither has come to the table with any money during my mandate, nothing.”
Frustrations continue to mount from DeGenova about receiving funding, with the mayor saying he is “at his wit’s end” trying to get appropriate funding for the municipality and other rural communities as a member of Hastings County Council.
“This kind of thing is just so tiresome and so irksome. I’ve had it. I don’t know what to do, right? But this is the way politics is today,” DeGenova vented.
“I’m not saying any other political party would probably be any different. The thing is, I don’t know why certain municipalities or certain residents in this province, in this country, are considered more valuable, and therefore they’ll invest more in them than they will in small, rural Ontario.”
You can listen to the full interview with Mayor Don DeGenova below:
