Chatham-Kent 2012 Budget

On Wednesday evening, following its eighth municipal budget review meeting, Chatham-Kent Council finalized the Municipality of Chatham-Kent 2012 budget. In an 8 to 7 vote, with three members of Council absent, Council approved a 2.3 percent tax increase.

As directed by Council, on January 10 the municipal administration had tabled a draft 2012 budget that provided a table of options for the Council budget committee’s consideration. The table served two functions:

• It provided a column of costs that would maintain existing services, phase in the municipality’s infrastructure deficit, and accommodate new initiatives
• It provided the Council budget committee with multiple options that would enable reductions to a potential increase in increments of 0.5% all the way to a zero tax freeze (0.0%)

The following table gives a high level overview of where the process started and what Council approved:

 *Note 1 - Administration presented options in increments of 0.5% that enabled Council to consider decreases up to and including a tax freeze.

 *Note 2 - The “Revised” column above reflects Province of Ontario funding announcements received after the draft was tabled but before the Council budget review started.

• As outlined, Council’s final decision was a 2.3% increase
• The administrative proposal to invest 2.4% to maintain existing services was changed to 2.1%
• The proposed infrastructure phase-in for 2% was changed to 0.3%
• New initiatives proposed for 1.5% were implemented at 0.2%
• Service level options provided to consider a tax freeze were acted on to a level of 0.3%
• For 2012, 1% equals $1.2M