By Cecilia Nasmith
Due to two last-minute changes at a special Thursday meeting, Northumberland County council reduced the 3% levy increase that had been its goal to 2.61%.
The two changes came as the result of a request at Wednesday's meeting for more information on three items in the waste portfolio.
Council accepted an option presented to reduce hours at its two busiest Community Recycling Centres in order to keep this budget item at its 2019 level, as opposed to staff's original recommendation to increase staff hours at these Brighton and Bewdley locations to 18,437 from 14,603.
This took a $131.000 increase out of the budget, though staff did advise that – given the increasing traffic at these locations – operations would be less efficient, with less oversight of waste separation possible and an increased potential for illegal or even dangerous dumping.
The second change was to the per-tonne tipping fee, unchanged since 2013 at $115. The staff recommendation was $125, and projections showed how revenues increased when it was raised to $135 and even above that. But staffer Adam McCue warned that $135 was probably the most the public would bear. Beyond that, illegal dumping became more likely.
Councillor Brian Ostrander made a motion for a $130 per-tonne fee to bring the county in line with private dumping operations in Colborne and Quinte West.
The change to $125 would have meant an extra $220,000 in revenue. Making it $130 brought in another $86,625 above that. Cramahe Councillor Mandy Martin and Trent Hills Councillor Bob Crate expressed support for going to $135.
“I would rather be ahead of the game,” Martin said.
“I think the service we provide would be worth that.”
Alnwick-Haldimand Councillor Gail Latchford pointed out that a jump of that size is a $20 per-tonne difference instead of $15.
“I would rather to $130 this year and, if necessary, go up $5 next year.”
In the end, the changes meant that $58,836,292 of the 2020 budget will come from taxation (instead of $59,053,917), putting the revenue side of the county budget at $140,443,734 (instead of $140,574,734).
A third motion was made, but did not proceed to debate for lack of a seconder.
Martin was very clear that her council would not support any hike in bag-tag costs, and made a motion to delay implementing that recommendation until 2021..
The $2.75 cost is unchanged since 2007, and the staff recommendation was to raise it by $1. The result was projected to add $785,000 to revenues. By taking that increase away, it would have put 2020 revenues at $59.5-million, resulting in a levy increase of 4%.
Martin felt that this increase would come across as the county's way of making its citizens cover costs incurred when the new two-stream recycling and green bin programs did not roll out as expected.
Cobourg Councillor John Henderson predicted that any increase would not be well received by his constituency.
“If you are a senior on a limited income, as our demographics are, that could be an issue,” Henderson said.
For Brighton Councillor Brian Ostrander, losing that increase in revenues would also be bad news.
Warden Bob Sanderson said that it is ultimately a user fee – if you don't use the service, you don't pay the cost. And a higher cost would be an added incentive to encourage diversion of waste.
Councillors agreed part of the problem is a large increase coming after so many years of no increase. Perhaps future increases could be more incremental, they suggested.
