Northumberland County council has adopted the 2022 budget that will see a 3.1% tax increase over 2021.
Treasurer Glenn Dees explained to council that this consists of a 2.7% increase in the regular county levy and a 0.4% increase to cover the $1.25-million commitment the county has made over five years to its two hospitals, Northumberland Hills Hospital and Campbellford Memorial Hospital.
Of the county's 2.7% share, Dees continued, the base-levy increase is 1.9% and 0.8% accounts for the dedicated infrastructure investment.
Looking at what it means to what he termed the average home, Dees said that their $1,239 2021 tax bill will rise to $1,277 in 2022 – about $38 more.
“At the onset of the budget-deliberation meeting, that would have been $40.88,” he said.
The budget took about half the year to produce, Dees noted.
“The county really is very fortunate to have very dedicated professional staff within the finance department,” he said.
“They put in an extensive amount of hours over and above the eight-hour day.
“It truly is all-hands-on-deck to get all the documents out and provide the draft budget for council consideration.”
“I commend council and staff for coming in at the level they did,” Councillor Bob Sanderson commented.
“We even got down to items in the budget as little as $5,000.”
Sanderson asked if Dees anticipated that the county would end 2021 with any degree of surplus, and where that money might go.
It's too early to tell, the treasurer replied, though almost certainly portions of travel-and-training budgets might remain unused due to COVID restrictions. And any surplus would go into an appropriate reserve fund.
“I just wanted to assure everyone we were not running a deficit in 2021,” Sanderson said.
“COVID has had a big impact, and I often get asked what is the negative impact from a financial perspective. When all is said and done, I guess I'm looking for assurance that the county did not run a deficit, and we can let the taxpayers know that it has been well managed.”