WELLINGTON NORTH – Wellington North council has approved the township’s 2023 budget which includes an 8.9 per cent increase to the tax levy.
This works out to an additional $144.64 on the tax bill for an average assessed home.
This is the largest increase of any Wellington County municipality in a year that generally saw tax increases higher than they had been in recent years.
Wellington North council landed on this amount, recommended by staff, after a long debate at the previous meeting. With this budget approval, the township will begin collecting taxes specifically to replace the Mount Forest pool as part of an eight-year plan that includes fundraising. The $350,000 to be collected for that project this year represents almost half the increase.
At Monday afternoon’s council meeting, mayor Andy Lennox addressed the increase he said has understandably raised questions from residents.
“I think we arrived at a budget that, while we didn’t love it, we recognize that it represents what’s necessary for us to do the things we believe are necessary for our community,” Lennox said.
Lennox also stressed this only impacts the township portion of the bill. Wellington County residents’ tax bills are split three ways with a majority going to the County of Wellington — this year saw a 3.8 per cent increase on that portion — and towards education where there was no increase.
When put together, the mayor said it averages out to a 5.1 per cent increase in total.
“While that’s not very palatable either, at least it was under the rate of inflation,” Lennox said.
Coun. Steve McCabe didn’t want to “beat a dead horse” but he asked one last time if there was anything that could be done to ease this increase.
The mayor said it wasn’t impossible but cautioned it would be a mistake to revisit the budget at this point.
Council ended up approving the budget bylaw as is unanimously.
