Kincardine Council took less than three hours to deliberate the 2023 Operating Budget for the municipality.
Council went through different proposed costs for this year’s operating budget and eliminated what they felt could be removed with minimal impact on quality of life for residents, in order to get the tax rate increase down from 11% to 7%.
Some changes had to be made, including eliminating a few summer student programs and putting a pause on the Ward 3 landfill for the year.
Council also felt it was appropriate to use some funding from the dividend from Bruce Telecom, on its own reduced the tax rate increase by 1.37%.
There was also an opportunity to use one-time funding from contingency savings to help fund the recruitment of a nurse practitioner, instead of having the money come from elsewhere in the operating budget.
After some discussion, it was also decided that council would keep funding a school resource officer, and have one seasonal by-law enforcement position cut.
When all was said and done, the tax rate increase for the operating costs this year ended up at 6.32%.
The Municipality of Kincardine’s total operating budget for 2023 comes out to $36,815,915.
The Capital Budget will be discussed at the next council meeting on March 6th.
*Editor’s note: This story was updated from an earlier version to correct inaccurate information about the status of the school resource officer.