In Tuesday night’s meeting of town council, Bradford resident Tracy Waldron came prepared to once again express her concerns over the 2020 tax increase. Before she had a chance to speak, Coun. Gary Lamb made a motion to reconsider the budget recommendation for the 2020-2022 term and the approved 3.55 percent overall tax increase for 2020.
"No matter who made what claim, there's still a bad taste in everyone's mouth after the last meeting," Lamb said.
In that meeting, held Dec. 17, Walrdon was part of a deputation to council, protesting what she called the ‘absurd’ tax increase facing taxpayers in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
In an effort to lessen the burden, Coun. Gary Baynes proposed dropping the Special Capital Levy from 1 percent to 0.5 percent, which would bring the tax rate down to just under three percent. Council voted against the idea at the time, noting that the budget had already been worked on for over two days and arguing that the special capital levy should not be touched in case of emergency projects.
Waldron and other concerned residents were not happy with the outcome of the Dec. 17 vote. In early January, they wrote to the town, demanding a re-vote and another chance to speak at the Jan. 21 council meeting.
Before Walrdon was able to present her deputation, Lamb’s motion was brought to the table for reconsideration. All of council was in favour of reconsideration, except for Deputy Mayor James Leduc.
“This is decision-making at its worst,” he argued. “I am a taxpayer and I put two and a half days of work on this budget….and I'll tell you I'm not very happy. Our taxes are not out of line with anybody else.”
Coun. Ron Orr said that he had been thinking about the budget ever since the Dec. 17 meeting, and how the tax rates will affect the residents. “We are trying to listen and do what we can so we don’t jeopardize the future of Bradford,” he said.
Coun. Peter Dykie agreed, saying that he “didn’t feel right” after the budget meetings in November, noting there are a lot of seniors on fixed incomes in Bradford that would benefit from a lower tax rate.
Revising the budget on Jan. 21, councilliors considered removing $319,346 from the Special Capital Levy, bringing the tax rate for 2020 to 2.95 percent.
“I feel that this is a comfortable number,” said Dykie.
Coun. Raj Sandhu said that reducing the amount of money in the special capital levy might take away from future investment, but at the same time would help out the residents.
“There are other cities in trouble to please people with lower increases,” he noted, “I would never agree to it, but this time we are in a crunch, we are in a bad growth year. I would support taking out ($319,346),” Sandhu said.
Orr asked the Town of BWG's Director of Finance Ian Goodfellow what the impact of the proposed reduction in the Special Capital Levy would be on the overall budget and town project plans.
Goodfellow noted that it would leave less money, but "in the short term won't hamper too much of the existing capital plans."
Coun. Baynes said that he had been thinking about the reduction in the Special Capital Levy even before the Dec. 17 meeting, and hearing from Waldron and other concerned taxpayers.
“I did not start this (proposal) because of a deputation. I did not start this because of a couple emails. I was thinking this way before any of these things happened. My mind’s still there - we got to do this,” Baynes said.
Coun. Mark Contois disagreed, warning the reduction in the Special Capital Levy would probably cut into future projects.
“This community needs and wants,” Contois said. “Activities, programs, theatre and bands - that all costs money. So, are some of these things going to be deferred? More than likely. Not sure yet.”
Coun. Ferragine was also opposed, wanting to know how the reduction would affect current and future projects.
“I still don’t have info and facts on what will be taken out (projects),” he said. “To throw it all away on a whim in one night? I can’t.”
In the vote, council approved the proposed reduction of the Special Capital Levy, voting five to three in favour. Deputy Mayor Leduc, Coun. Contois and Ferragine were opposed.
Lamb called it a healthy, and necessary debate. “I think council needed to flesh this out. It was a healthy debate and showed the citizens some tough love here,” he said.
Dykie noted that, with new development coming on the 400 lands and in Bond Head, Bradford has “positive things to come,” which will help with the “overall taxation on the community” in the coming years.
After the debate, Waldron addressed council and thanked them for their efforts in bringing down the tax rate for the residents.
"We do appreciate the effort that the council has done," she said. "It’s not that we don’t want to pay taxes, we just want to stay here. Tonight was a true debate; the last time was truly disappointing. I appreciate the decision tonight."
Mayor Rob Keffer said that he was proud of council and their hard work on the budget.
"Since the last meeting, we were trying to figure out the best way to compare the average taxes paid," he said, comparing the overall tax rate with neighbouring towns Newmarket (2.94 percent), East Gwillimbury (3.08 percent) New Tecumseth (3.03 percent), and Barrie (2.96 percent), in a slideshow presentation. He noted that over the past six years, BWG lies somewhere in the middle in terms of tax increases.
"We appreciate the tax dollars that the residents pay to the Town of Bradford and try to give good value to the service," he said.
Whether the $319,346 reduction, for the incremental part of the allocation to the Special Capital Levy needs to be be repeated in 2021 and 2022, or not will be determined in the budget meetings in November 2020 and November 2021, respectively.
