It’s that time of year again Milton. No, not the long lines at the shopping malls, the honing of Christmas lists of your kids and the never ending list of holiday parties to attend. Its budget time at the Town of Milton.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is a fun time for your local councillor as well. Over the last year I have talked with you on what your budget priorities are. This past summer myself along with a number of other councillors sat down with you to discuss the issues you found to be important. I have received close to 100 emails over the course of the year of you letting me know what you would like to see.
All of the comments received were sent to staff and what you will see here is a list of the budget documents. This budget will come before council on December 12 and 13th for review/debate/approval. Members of the public are more than welcome, and encouraged to take part in this process as well. If you’d like to know how you can be a part of this important process, please email me mike@mikecluett.ca for more details.
Over the course of the next week or so as I dive into these documents, drink lots of coffee and find more dark circles under my eyes due to lack of sleep, I will be posting more details, my thoughts and attempt to get as many of your comments ready for the budget committee meeting on the 12th. If you want a hard copy of the budget, they can be purchased at Milton Town Hall as well. Email me for details.
A quick overview of the budget will find that it recommends at 4.18% increase in the tax rate. That doesn’t mean your taxes will go up by that amount, its the rate of increase in budget spending. In the past I have stated I wouldn’t support a budget with an increase over the rate of inflation and I look to keep that same commitment here. That rate doesn’t include education, the Region of Halton, the Library levy or DBIA.
I’ll post more details on what can be done to reduce the impact of the tax increase in the coming days. Again, if you have any questions at all, please email or call me anytime. With over 400 pages in the budget document, odds are I will be up late reading it.
Here are the links online from www.milton.ca for the 2012 Budget Documents
Operating and Capital Budgets
The Town’s annual budget is developed by staff in consideration of the guidelines approved by Council in July and input received from the public. Council deliberates and approves the budget in December of each year ensuring an approved budget is in place for the start of the new year.
Comments
4 Responses to “2012 Town of Milton Budget Documents are HERE!”
Councillor Cluett,
I know you are probably not going to answer this question and I understand your reasons for not responding in advance. I know youre in a difficult situation.
After reading the Champion article about Tony Lambert I am growing more and more concerned about the situation. Like many other Milton residents, I know of other times where this has happened, but no one believed me. He has disgraced the office of councillor and it has affected his job. He wasnt able to amke a budget meeting at the Region last week because he was in jail. This will be with him for a long time and over the next 3 years it will distract him from doing his job.
Is there any way that we can petition the town/region to have him removed from office? I know BC has recall legislation and this is a perfect example of the need for these laws.
Some councillors don’t seem to mind a 4.18% tax increase because education and the region are low and the total tax insrease is near inflation.
Does that mean that if increases from education and the region were high, Milton would reduce taxes so the total was near inflation? I doubt it.
What I found to be interesting is that over the years the reports have stated that we need 7 or 8 or 9 per cent increases. This year council made the request to staff via the budget call report to come back with a budget that had no more than 5 per cent increase….and thats what happened.
Looking through the budget documents so far, there is room for more savings without impacting services. We have to grow within our means.
Right now the burden of the growth in this town is on the residential taxpayer. It cant be sustained like that over time. Thats why we need to ensure we create a positive economic environment for companies to move here. Derry Green Business Park and the Milton Education Village are keys in that. Just imagine with more businesses / companies / corporations calling Milton home, the burden of residential taxpayers will be lessened over time.
We need to save for the future infrastructure yes. We need to ensure the services we provide our massively growing population base arent affected as much as possible.
The people around the table at Milton Council cannot control what happens at the Region or at the Halton District School Board so that shouldnt be a factor in our discussions. We can control what we can control.
We need to keep an eye on the ball for opportunities to bring more business to Milton…lessen the impact on the residential taxbase…spend within our means all the while looking to the future and what Milton will end up being not just this year, not just at election time, but 10-15-20 years down the road.
We wont be able to entice companies to move here if its unaffordable. They have many choices in our area and if we arent competitive, we lose those opportunities. Keeping the cost of living as competitive and low as possible for residential and business taxpayers are the keys for future growth.
The recommendations came in below what I thought they were going to come in at, but theres still room for change in our budget to keep control of what we can control…thats the Milton portion of our tax bill.
Im not satisfied to say well if we nibble here and there and keep it under the rate of inflation it will keep guys like me quiet. I want us to do and be better for the future.
Thanks for a great response Mike.
Wish there were more like you around the council table.