This week Strathroy-Caradoc Council approved its budget for 2024 on a split vote of 5-3 with Councillors Hipple, Derbyshire and Willsie voting against the budget. myFM talked with Finance Director Bill Dakin.
When compared to the last few years, Dakin did say it went up a bit and that’s the reality of the world we live in right now.
Dakin did add there were some big hitters as far as capital projects contributing to this budget.
It is estimated that the municipal debt at year-end 2023 will be $11.08 million. There has been debt
added in 2023 and 2024. The annual debt payments for 2024 will be $1,966,862.
As far as Municipal Property Tax, for every $100,000 of assessment, the average tax increase is $47.70. For a home assessed at $350,000 the tax impact is $2,690 up from $2,575 in 2023, which in total is an increase of $115 or 4.47%. Listeners should be made aware, that this figure excludes the Education Tax set by the Province and County Tax set by Middlesex County.
The 2024 Proposed Consolidated Budget tax dollars of $23,140,975 covers the funds required for both Operating, and Capital expenditures as well as transfers to Reserve Funds, this represents a $1,322,327 or 4.47% tax rate increase, over 2023.
The 2024 Capital Budget includes capital works totaling $32.3 million which will be accomplished using $3.7 million tax dollars. Included in the Capital budget are the 2024 Fleet purchases totaling $1,965,000 million which will be purchased through the fleet budget which has an annual contribution which is part of the operating budget as well as loans.
Here are some links to the complete 2024 budget presented this week at council.
Microsoft Word – Budget Overview Dec 16th , 2019 Council (escribemeetings.com)