In the town council meeting on Dec. 17, Bradford resident Tracy Waldron addressed council in a deputation regarding the proposed 3.55 percent property tax increase for 2020.
Waldron outlined her concerns over what she called an “absurd” hike and compared BWG taxes to neighbouring towns like East Gwillimbury and Newmarket.
Deputy Mayor James Leduc responded that it wasn’t “comparing apples to apples,” as East Gwillimbury and Newmarket are part of York Region and BWG is part of Simcoe County, adding that BWG has the highest home values in Simcoe County, which makes the taxes for the town higher.
“This 3.55 percent increase, 3.31 percent of it is Bradford and the rest is Simcoe but they keep blaming Simcoe,” said Walrdon.
Waldron wondered if it’s possible to make changes and address her concerns at the county level. “Do we have effective representation? Do we have someone with creative ideas?” she questioned.
In the council meeting, a proposal was put forward to reduce the special capital levy by $100,000, lowering the lower the tax rate to under three percent. But with only two out of eight council members voting in favour of the change - Coun. Raj Sandhu was absent - there were no adjustments made to the current budget.
Waldron is not satisfied with the outcome of the vote and the answers received at the meeting. She and other concerned taxpayers continue to press the town for more information and for a re-vote.
Prior to the Dec. 17 council meeting, Walrdon and a group of residents formed the Faceook group, Voting Taxpayers of Bradford West Gwillimbury, who have rallied together to share their concerns over the administration of the town.
The group meets regularly to discuss their concerns, ask for a new vote, and question the financial decision-making of the current council.
“Our taxes are going up, but your services are going down,” noted member Jerry Campsall. “There are problems that we’re trying to get to the bottom of and decisions that aren’t really thought through.”
Some of their questions appear to be based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the town's revenue streams.
The group questioned council’s decision to defer 10 million dollars of development charges levied on a new project - but the Town of BWG and council explained that Development Charges are entirely separate from municipal taxation: "The deferral of development charges has no impact on taxpayers and the money will still be collected in its entirety."
A deferral does not equate to forgiveness; it just means the town will permit the developer to pay the DCs later, as a way of encouraging new businesses and new growth.
"Development charges provide municipalities with a revenue stream to pay for new infrastructure that is required to support planned growth," read a response from Bradford's CAO, Geoff McKnight - and the deferral can be a deciding factor to attracting new business.
"Encouraging business development in BWG is important for many reasons. Not only does it bring jobs and amenities to our municipality, but when more money is being brought in from property taxes on businesses, it reduces the tax burden on residential property owners," McKnight noted.
The group also expressed concerns over revenue streams in the municipality..
“The only revenue sources they seem to have in mind are taxes. They don’t look at anything else, they don’t look at developers and their responsibilities,” claimed Campsall.
In fact, under the Development Charges Act, developers are assessed the projected cost of growth-related infrastructure, through the development charges.
There was another question: This past summer, in a “public relations exercise” the Ford government offered cities $7.35 million to conduct third party audits, Bradford included. Bradford did not apply for the funding.
It would have been "redundant since council and staff already undertake a very thorough line-by-line review of each department’s operating and capital budget submissions and look for savings on an annual basis," responded the town.
But the taxpayers' group is wondering why the municipality would turn down a “free” service, and questions the existing audit process. “Is anybody looking at what they are doing?” said Jerry Campsall’s wife and fellow group member, Ann Campsall.
"As this external review is a component of our normal process, we did not see the need to undertake an additional third-party review. We anticipate that the Province’s audit funding program will likely become available again and council will reconsider the need at that time," responded McKnight.
The Voting Taxpayers of BWG group says it wants to become a “focus group,” with members willing to do research into the current financials of the town and county, and presenting their findings to residents.
“It’s concerning for everyone,” said Ann Campsall of the rising tax rates. “It’s just something that if you don’t bring it to light and something doesn’t get done then it will just continue to go and it will get worse - and that’s what we are seeing, is that it’s getting worse.”
The group acknowledges that everyone must pay taxes, but they are not happy with the rate increases for 2020, and coming years.
“We got to pay taxes, there is no question about it. It’s just the amount has skyrocketed,” said Jerry Campsall.
Dean Walrdon, also a member of the group, said that compared to his friends living in Georgetown and Aurora, who have higher home values, he still pays more in taxes.
But the town says it all comes down to the MPAC assessments, the municipality, and that services must be paid for by the taxpayer.
After the last council meeting, Mayor Keffer said he had conducted more research based on the information Waldron brought forward, into the difference between East Gwillimbury and Bradford tax increases.
When assessed home values go up, in theory the tax rate can be lower to generate the same amount of revenue. In fact, costs are increasing - through inflation, negotiated salary increases, hikes in insurance and hydro rates.
And in Bradford West Gwillimbury, approximately 38,000 residents are paying directly for services that are covered in East Gwillimbury and Newmarket by York Region, with a population of nearly 1.2 million - including transit, and policing.
On top of that, East Gwillimbury does not levy the "Special Capital Levy," which Bradford West Gwillimbury introduced as a 1 percent tax levy in 2013, and which has been increasing by an additional 1 percent per year.
The special levy now contributes approximately $3.8 million per year towards Reserves, for replacement of existing assets.
"The assets to be replaced include items such as bridges, roads, municipal buildings, fire trucks, snow plows, etc. As the town grows physically, so too does our inventory of assets," McKnight said in a written response.
"The federal and provincial governments have increased funds for municipal infrastructure grants but unless they provide more or empower municipalities with additional sources of revenue, the special capital levy will need to increase further – but that is a decision that council makes on an annual basis when approving the budget," he noted.
Walrdon and the rest of the group feel that the responses received from council and the town are just a way to "muddy the waters," and will be making another deputation at next week's council meeting.
"Our taxes are much higher compared to other municipalities even in Simcoe County and we are demanding accountability and more transparency on the spend and decisions by this elected group," said Walrdon.
The group currently has around 70 members, with a few of them meeting regularly to discuss their concerns.
As far as the group's request goes for conducting a re-vote, "council MAY choose to reconsider a decision IF a member of council who voted in favour of the original decision makes a motion to reconsider. At this time, no member of council who voted in favour of the motion to pass the budget has indicated an intent to make a motion to reconsider," read the response from the town.
Waldron and the other members are hoping to expand their reach within the community, and encourage residents who are concerned over the tax rates to reach out via their Facebook page or new Instagram account @votingtaxpayersofbradfordwg.
Council is aware of the group and said they would be willing to sit down and work with them to come up with new ideas on how to save money for taxpayers.
“If they (the group) find something that they can show us that we need to do better and they have the facts and the actuals, we’re in,” said Leduc.
“We’re the decision makers in the end but, trust me, the reason we have committees and the reason we listen is because we know we need feedback from everybody to make us that much better,” he said.
"We've always tried to be fair, open and honest," said Keffer.
The next council meeting will take place on Tuesday Jan. 21 in the Zima Room at the BWG Library and the public is welcome to attend.
