Tillsonburg council approves 2.8% tax hike

Tillsonburg Town Council passed the 2023 Municipal Budget at its Feb. 13 council meeting, approving a tax rate increase of 2.82 per cent.

An average Tillsonburg home with an assessed value of $237,000 will see an increase of $53.79 on the town portion of their annual tax bill.

“The municipality is facing inflationary pressures and supply shortages, and other cost increases so, with all that pressure, coming in at 2.82 per cent is pretty responsible,” said Mayor Deb Gilvesy, who praised town staff for narrowing down budget items, presenting needs versus wants.

“It was such a prudent budget to begin with,” said Gilvesy. “Staff did a fantastic job.”

The town’s overall budget for 2023 is $35.6 million, with $7.2 million allocated to capital projects.

“I found the budget process to be very well done, very comprehensive and kudos to you director (Renato Pullia, interim director of finance/treasurer) for guiding council through this,” said Councilor Bob Parsons at the Feb. 13 meetings. “I’m particularly impressed with the 10-year asset management program… going forward trying to remove the mountains and the valleys and smooth things out a bit. I believe this is a great path forward.”

Highlights of the 2023 capital budget include improvements to the Tillsonburg Community Center and Annandale National Historic Site; reconstruction of Young Street and Bayham Line; a new columbarium at Tillsonburg Cemetery; playground equipment; and storm and sanitary sewer upgrades.

“We had to draw on some funds because there are a couple cost-overrun projects, due to the supply shortage and cost of construction that went beyond what was budgeted for in previous years,” said Gilvesy. “So that has been addressed and a couple things did get moved to next year.”

One big change, she said, is the introduction of a 10-year capital budget, laying out a path for council and coordinating with the Community Strategic Plan. They also laid out an aggressive asset management policy, with a three per cent capital increase to help deal with the cost of asset management, followed by another three per cent increase in 2024 and one per cent in 2025.

“We have to recognize that we have aging facilities, and that they need to be repaired and brought up to today’s standards,” Gilvesy said.

Departmental business plans highlighted the 10-year Community Strategic Plan, advancement of the Parks and Recreation, Fire and Transportation Master Plans, the Town Hall initiative, implementation of the Regional Airport Master Plan, and a local review for additional affordable access to and attainable housing .

“Council’s going to have a lot of reading this year,” Gilvesy smiled. “The master transportation plan is going to be a very large undertaking. It’s going to look at road infrastructure, enhancements at major corners in certain areas of town, and most importantly it’s going to dive into ‘how do we entertain trucks?’ Every year we look at a slice of the pie. So now we’re going to look at the whole pie. There will be more information about that forthcoming.”

Tapping into funding sources is key to the town’s strategic plan, said CAO Kyle Pratt.

“It’s important to make strategic use of all available funding sources to manage growth over the long-term,” said Pratt in a media release. “The annual budget process, development charges and partnership funding from other levels of government all facilitate the ongoing implementation of our 2021-2030 Community Strategic Plan.”

Taxpayers had the opportunity to provide input on 2023 budget priorities through an online survey from Oct. 19 to Nov. 11, 2022.

“This is a very responsible budget,” said Pullia in the media release. “It respects the current economic conditions with a modest tax rate increase, addresses the short to medium term priorities, while at the same time setting a path for longer term infrastructure renewal.”

To learn more about Tillsonburg’s 2023 budget, visit www.tillsonburg.ca/2023budget .