Time to pay the piper, just not as much.
Barrie councillors whittled down the cost of maintaining city services from a 0.88 per cent property tax increase to zero during city budget talks last night — decreasing, for now, the tax increase to approximately 3.07 per cent from 3.95 per cent.
“This is a budget where we have had to penny-pinch, go through it line by line,” said Coun. Gary Harvey, chairman the city’s finance and responsible governance committee.
“This is where we are starting, not where we are ending,” Mayor Alex Nuttall said of the tax increase. “Obviously, this is one of the biggest pieces in our mandate, to approve the budget.”
The 3.07 per cent tax increase would be on a typical Barrie home assessed at $365,040, with taxes last year of $4,612.
Councillors will debate the capital budget later today, beginning at 5 p.m.
City council is expected to consider final approval of the operating/capital budget on Feb. 15.
Reducing the cost of city services leaves property taxpayers with a one per cent increase for the dedicated infrastructure renewal fund (DIRF), which helps pay for the replacement and renewal of Barrie’s roads, pipes, buildings and bridges, and is worth $3.1 million this year.
The tax rate increase for Barrie’s service partners — city police, Barrie Public Library and County of Simcoe — remains at 2.07 per cent.
Councillors have delayed talks on the service partner budgets until March 8.
How was the budget for city services reduced from a 0.88 per cent tax increase to zero? In part, by cutting planned city staff increases.
This year’s operating budget was to hire 22 additional city employees, or conversions of temporary positions to full-time staff. Instead it’s to be 13 full-time staff and 6.4 casual, part-time employees.
The full-time staff are office services assistant and structural engineer, both in the building services department, a utility SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) specialist, an engineering contractor administrator, four roads operations staff for Barrie’s growth land, an emergency vehicle technician, two facilities project managers, a technology analyst, and a disability management specialist.
The casual, part-time positions include planning staff for Ontario Bill 109 review, cleaning staff for waterfront washrooms and recreation staff for re-opening recreation centres on weekends in the summer."
This year’s budget also includes the pre-approval for 20 new Barrie firefighters so the recruitment process for these positions can begin in late 2023, in preparation for the 2024 opening of Fire Station No. 6. There’s no budget impact this year, but the pre-approval would result in pressure on the 2024 tax levy of about 0.68 per cent or $2.1 million.
Station No. 6 is planned for the southwest corner of Prince William Way and Mapleview Drive, and is to be operational in the spring of 2024. Construction would start mid-2023, and it will take eight to 10 months to build.
Barrie’s city staff totals 987, full- and part-time permanent, which includes 187 in the Barrie Fire and Emergency Service, and 32 part-time permanent employees.
But the stormwater climate action fund was not approved Wednesday night by Barrie councillors.
It was to have the owners of single-family Barrie homes pay $10.75 a month — or $129 annually — in stormwater user fees starting this spring. The average homeowner had been contributing $174 annually toward stormwater management through property taxes. For 2023, the proposed rate was to be billed for nine months beginning April 1, and would total $96.75 for the year. The first three months would be funded by the federal gas tax rebate, totalling $2.6 million.
But Harvey and other councillors had concerns about these numbers not including costly operational and administrative charges.
“I think it’s prudent to pause,” said Coun. Sergio Morales, noting Barrie needs to get federal funding. “This is a national issue.”
Councillors also approved a Barrie Transit cash fare increase, to $3.50 from $3.25, as of April 1, 2023 — except for seniors, who will remain at a $3 fare.
Barrie’s annual budget sets service levels, along with the taxes and fees to pay for city services, as well as water and sewer (wastewater) rates. Education taxes are also included.
On a typical household that consumes 180 cubic metres of water annually, the bill was $374.25 last year. With this year’s 3.7 per cent increase, which is worth $13.75, the 2023 water bill will be $388.
Last year’s sewer bill of $532.46 is slated to increase by five per cent, which is $26.54, for a 2023 total wastewater bill of $559 — again, on that typical household consuming 180 cubic metres of water annually.
So the combined water/sewer cost this year is $947, on the typical home, or a 4.4 per cent increase compared to 2022 levels.
Police spending is traditionally the largest segment of Barrie’s annual operating budget, and this year it’s 22.1 per cent. It was 21.8 per cent last year, 22.2 per cent in 2021.
The Barre Police Service's 2023 budget asks for 7.28 per cent more, or a $4.29-million increase in city funding. It’s pegged at $63.24 million, an increase from $58.95 million last year.
Police are asking for four more civilian employees this year and five new sworn officers, bringing those totals to 125 and 250 respectively. Barrie police has been at 245 officers since 2020.
The five new officers will be on front-line duty, while the four new civilian employees comprise two in human resources, one in information technology and another in records.
Salaries, benefits and overtime make up $56.54 million of this year’s police budget. Of that total, 75 per cent is salaries, 24 per cent is benefits and one per cent is for overtime. That’s a 3.5 per cent increase in salaries and 1.7 per cent more for benefits.
The Barrie Public Library, including the new Holly Community Branch, has a 2023 budget which asks for a 2.43 per cent increase in the city’s grant, to about $9.6 million from $9.37 million last year, or $228,000 more.
The County of Simcoe is requesting another $1.7 million, or 6.57 per cent more, for Barrie’s share of its 2023 operating and capital costs. The total net amount of tax supported city funding is increasing to $27.4 million from 25.7 million last year.
The county supplies land ambulances and paramedics, health and emergency services, Ontario Works, children’s services, social housing, long-term care (LTC), seniors services and community services, which includes homelessness, to the city.
This year’s capital budget totals $360 million, although $271 million of that figure is requested spending.
There is $89 million in approved capital spending and it includes road resurfacing and flood mitigation, along with the study and design of the upgrades and capacity of the wastewater treatment facility.
There’s $21.3 million to relocate the existing administrative, laboratory and garage functions at the wastewater treatment facility, $21 million to redevelop the existing Operations Centre and $5.6 million for the new Barrie Fire and Emergency Service Station No. 6, at Prince William Way and Mapleview Drive.
Last year’s property tax increase was 2.94 per cent, which on a typical city home assessed at $362,740 equalled an increase of almost $132, bringing property taxes on that house to $4,612 last year. That 2.94 per cent increase was a blended number, for municipal and education taxes, which almost never increase, and included 0.75 per cent more dedicated infrastructure renewal funding.
Last year’s budget also included increases to water and wastewater (sewer) rates — 2.4 per cent or $8.75 more for water, an additional 3.03 per cent or $15.61 for sewer, for a typical household that consumes 180 cubic metres of water annually. So the yearly cost of Barrie’s water and sewer services in 2022, on this typical household, was estimated at $374 and $531 respectively, for a combined cost of $905. This was $24.36 or 2.77 per cent more for both services compared to 2021 levels.
Ontario municipalities receive a very small portion of total taxes by Canadians when sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes are considered — only nine cents of every tax dollar raised, while the province and Ottawa get 44 cents and 47 cents, respectively.
In Barrie’s case, just more than half of those nine cents is available for city services and the rest goes to its service partners and education.
Property taxes are calculated based on the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s (MPAC) assessed value. MPAC last did a province-wide assessment in 2016, so these property values are significantly lower than actual 2023 market values.
