Over the past few months, we’ve seen a residents’ group push back against a proposed tax rate of 3.55 percent. In response to deputations and pressure, Council voted to cut the capital levy portion of the tax bill from an annual 1 percent to just 0.5 percent, bringing the overall tax rise to just under three percent.
This process is as it should be: Council listened to residents.
I do, however, worry about the logic of cutting from the capital levy, a funding mechanism for the long-term infrastructure projects we need. It would have been more prudent to find actual budget items to cut or defer, so that the long-term planning needs of the municipality were not impacted.
(To be fair, the town staff stated a one-time decrease to the capital levy would not have a negative impact on those long-term needs, but the challenge with anything “one-time” is that it can sure be tempting to do it again.)
That all said, council has done a good job under Mayor Rob Keffer of keeping any tax rate tied closely to inflation—at least on the municipal end of the bill.
The County of Simcoe has always put upward pressure on Bradford West Gwillimbury taxpayers, leading to the mayor’s push for reform at the county, reforms that are much needed and hopefully will be addressed as part of a restructuring of county council.
However, Bradford West Gwillimbury has left its own restructuring in limbo for far too long. I’ve argued before that it is long past time to move forward on the new civic centre and town hall, as part of the revitalization of the old community centre.
It is a waste of money to have town staff and council housed in multiple different facilities all across town. It’s a waste of time and productivity for staff in one department to have to drive across town on the clock for meetings with another department. It’s a waste in rent expenses. And it’s a waste in other line items, from duplicative costs related to IT, phone lines, furniture—no matter how much town staff try to streamline things, being in multiple locations is a drain on any operation.
There is a great upfront cost to building the new civic centre, but we also have to factor in how it will save money by consolidating resources and staff over the long term. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, after all.
Town council has found ways to save and cut waste. But the biggest waste remains “getting its own house in order” quite literally by consolidating town staff into one building—which will be good for not only the town’s bottom line, but also for customer convenience and satisfaction and for employee productivity.
Editor's Note: The decision was to add an additional 0.5% (not a full 1%) to the Special Capital Levy in 2020, so 7.5% will be allocated compared to 7% in 2019.
