On Wednesday evening (Feb 8), following its eighth municipal budget review meeting, Chatham-Kent
Council finalized the 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 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:
The following table gives a high level overview of where the process started and what Council approved:
| |
Draft |
Revised
(Note 2) |
Final |
| Maintain existing services |
4.1% |
2.4% |
2.1% |
| Phase-in full infrastructure funding |
2.0% |
2.0% |
0.3% |
| Consider new initiatives |
1.5% |
1.5% |
0.2% |
| Service level changes (note 1) |
0.0% |
0.0% |
(0.3)% |
| Required to accomplish all of the above |
7.6% |
5.9% |
2.3% |
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 funding announcements received after the draft was tabled but before the Council budget review started.
As outlined above:
- 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
ckfps@chatham-kent.ca