Gas_tax_debate

Jeff Green | Oct 13, 2005

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County defers gas tax debate

by Jeff Green

Two of the four townships in Frontenac County passed resolutions requesting that the Counties’ share of the Federal Gas Tax rebate be distributed directly to the townships.

The Mayors from those two townships, Bill Lake from South Frontenac and Ron Maguire from North Frontenac, presented differing viewpoints on what formula should be used to distribute the monies at a meeting of Frontenac County Council last week. Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim VandenHoek put an end to the discussion by saying “There is no point in deciding how to cut the pie until we decide whether we are going to have pie or not.”

A report from County Chief Administrative Officer Elizabeth Fulton, also presented to the meeting, said that the gas tax rebate program requires an agreement to be signed between the Association of Ontario Municipalities and each municipality and that “the agreement and details relating to project eligibility have not been released.”

Even though the County of Frontenac is not currently engaged in any of the activities that are prescribed for the gas tax monies, namely water, wastewater, waste management, community energy, capacity building and transit projects, this might change in the future.

Fulton’s report concludes by saying, “Staff anticipates that there will be a number of activities and projects which fall within the parameters to be defined and expects that we will be able to take advantage of these monies at the County level to achieve cost containments and tax levy avoidances.”

County Council accepted Fulton’s report for information and the issue was deferred at least until the 2006 County budget process begins in October.

The gas tax rebate is a five-year plan that will see transfers increasing each year. The County of Frontenac is slated to receive $237,999 in 2005-2006, rising to $793,189 in 2009-2010.