As reported previously, Councillor Emily Chorley and Deputy Mayor Séguin voted against the “approved” budget increase of 6.3% over the 2021 Operating Budget since this would have meant a 4.1% net tax increase (after allowing for New Assessment Growth of 2.2%).  Not giving up, Councillor Chorley asked Treasurer Ian Davey if any savings could be found. Ian reported that about $300K in the 2021 budget had not been spent because various people were not hired as originally planned (see list in links below).  He proposed that this be put into a “Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve” which would be used to smooth out volatility in tax rates. But why not this budget? So Suzanne Séguin moved and Emily Chorley seconded an… Read complete articleCouncil Approves Reduced Final 2022 Operating budget

The good news is that there is a list, so theoretically, work to be done does not get forgotten – but it certainly gets delayed, some items longer than others. Hopefully the extra staff agreed for 2022 will allow some of it to get done. Also theoretically, projects get prioritised based on the Council’s Strategic plan but in practice that only happens sometimes. The list is provided at the end of every Council meeting but is rarely discussed – it’s at the end of meetings so Councillors are no doubt tired and not interested although the list is gradually getting shorter. One item often missing from the list is a current expected completion date. The latest full list is available in… Read complete articleUnfinished Business December 2021

If Council approves staff recommendations coming to Council at the next Committee of the Whole meeting on December 6, transit fares will increase.  Cobourg’s Transit is currently heavily subsidised – riders pay $2.00 per ride and Cobourg taxpayers pay another $4.88 to cover costs (based on 108,372 riders in 2019).  Total taxpayer subsidy in 2019 was $707K * – numbers for recent years are worse because of fewer riders during the pandemic – details below.  In 2022, revenues from fares are budgeted at 7.5% of operating costs – capital costs are extra.  As reported earlier, during the 2022 budget review, Councillor Darling commented that the cost of Transit to the Town in 2022 of $1,069,024 was a lot for the… Read complete articleTransit Fares to Increase

Deputy Mayor Suzanne Séguin chaired the two-day Budget review Council meetings and hoped to reduce the levy increase impact of 6.7% to 5.3% per Council’s target. But by 4:00 pm on the second day, she expressed her frustration that Councillors kept adding amounts that cancelled any reductions. She said “we need to do better”; her comments seemed to blame councillors and Mayor Henderson then told her to “Watch your comments”! He said that they were all trying to do the right thing. When the two days’ work was complete, the budget increase was 6.3% and with a growth amount of 2.2%, the tax levy increase would be 4.1%. In a recorded vote, Suzanne and Councillor Chorley voted against approving the… Read complete articleFinal Draft Budgets approved 5-2