Central Frontenac trims budget, increase set at 1.5% of levy

Craig Bakay | Mar 10, 2021

Central Frontenac Council has met twice over the last week to consider the 2021 township budget, and the result is a budget that includes a minimal tax increase for ratepayers.

After coming in last Friday (February 26) with a budget with a low impact on taxpayers, Central Frontenac Council trimmed further on Tuesday afternoon (March 2) and instead

of raising the township levy by 2.3% as originally proposed, the increase has been cut to 1.5% ($118,00)

And almost all of that $118,000 increase is covered off by assessment growth resulting from new construction. The increase to the tax rate in Central Frontenac will be 0.3%.

When combined with the education and county tax rates, Central Frontenac ratepayers will be paying $4 more for every $100,000 in property assessment.

Treasurer Michael McGovern said that the budget reductions were achieved by putting off the purchase of a tandem truck ($300,000) until 2022 and moving single surface treatment projects and the Crow Lake Road Village to Boundary project to 2022 as well.

He said he then offset a loan down from the original $3.4 million to $2.1 million (still over 10 years).

“If nothing falls apart that too expensive to fix, we should have some breathing room in a few years (when some loans are paid off),” said Mayor Frances Smith.

Coun. Brent Cameron praised staff’s work on keeping budget number low despite some unique circumstances.

“We have a lot more permanent residents than North that creates more demand for full-time services and while maybe we don’t have as many as South but then we don’t have the population or commercial/industrial assessment South has either,” Cameron said.