Russell Township begins budget-review process "$56"- * 5 r /&84
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
the new council also has to deal with the provincial government’s own continuing restraint policy, resulting in lower municipal grants. “It’s a significant loss of revenue over the last four years,” Leduc said. Since 2011 the province has been cutting back on its annual grant to all municipalities. For Russell Township, the reduction over the past four years has been about $325,000.The province is phasing out its old municipal grant programand will replace it with a new one but figures are not available yet for how that might affect the annual outside revenue source for the township’s own budgeting process. At present, with the first draft of the municipal budget, council is looking at
Council and staff hope to have a newbudget for Russell Township ready soon enough for the municipality to benefit from the lower rates possible fromcontractors and service providers that gowith tender calls. Monday saw the first of two all-day budget review sessions for council and staff focusing on operation expenses and some capital pur- chase needs for administration, the finance and enforcement departments, planning, the economic development department, and the public library and fire departments. Chief Administrator Jean Leduc noted that
Russell Township council studies the preliminary budget report.
a possible 2.47% tax increase. Once all other sources of revenue are accounted for, the preliminary budget proposes a municipal levy of about $9.4 million from property taxes. For the average residential taxpayer with house and land assessed at $286,637, this would mean an increase of $38.29 on the property tax. That depends on the prop- erty maintaining its existing value. Anyone
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whose property either increased or decreased in value could see higher or lower property taxes. Businesses and other types of property would also have differ- ent property tax
For the average residential taxpayer with house and land assessed at $286,637, this would mean an increase of $38.29 on the property tax.
changes. If council and staff can find ways to save money or put off spending on some proposed operations or capital expenses, the final municipal levy and resulting tax increase could be lower. Leduc and Finance Director Claudette Landry also noted during the budget pre- sentations to council that the final tax bill every property owner receives includes not just the municipal tax. The township is re- sponsible for collecting the property taxes for the United Counties of Prescott-Russell (UCPR), the four school districts, the prov- ince, and other agencies like the South Na- tion Conservation Authority, all of who are doing their own budget reviews. Le Village de Casselman, qui est en pleine période de préparation budgétaire, profitera de la baisse des taux d’intérêts pour réduire sa dette, a affirmé le directeur général de la municipalité de Casselman, Marc Chénier. Ce dernier explique qu’ils travaillent actuel- lement sur la restructuration de la dette qui totalise 8 millions $, équivalant à six emprunts. «En consolidant ces prêts, nous pourrons profiter d’un meilleur taux d’intérêt par année», a-t-il fait valoir. Le montant en économies est évalué à 100 000 $. Selon le directeur général, le conseil devrait envi- sager de ne pas aller sous la barre des 2% d’augmentation afin de suivre l’inflation. «Le 2% est la cible visée», de conclure Marc Chénier. La première ébauche du budget a été présentée au mois de décembre dernier. Il devrait être finalisé avant le début du mois d’avril avant d’être approuvé. (AL) Casselman profitera de la baisse des taux d’intérêts
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