Owen Sound is looking at a proposed budget hike of 4.68 per cent.
Council and staff went through the 2012 operating budget on Monday at City Hall.
The city needs to raise 22.6 million dollars through taxes, up about one million over last year.
Director of Financial Services Wayne Ritchie says it’s a reasonable budget with achievable targets.
New City Manager Ruth Coursey points out many elements of the budget are things they have little or no control over — such as wages, benefits, insurance and utilities.
While the police budget will come in with a slight decrease — that’s being more than offset by a 14-per cent hike in the fire department’s budget, which is climbing from 3.7 million this year to 4.2 million in 2012.
A positive piece of news is that the province is keeping its promise to begin uploading court security costs — starting with 61 thousand dollars in 2012.
Unfortunately, those gains by Owen Sound will be negated by further reductions in Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) grants.
The city expects to lose another 10 per cent in 2012 — or 146 thousand dollars.
Mayor Deb Haswell says Owen Sound and other municipalities will continue to fall behind as the province continues to ratchet up the pressure on them.
Council also made a couple of important decisions on Monday that will have little or no impact on the bottom line.
First, councillors accepted a recommendation to no longer maintain the harbour walkways during the winter.
Council also discussed the Queen’s Park bandshell.
After talk of demolishing the derelict 90 year old structure, it was decided that the situation will be reviewed again in June.
That will give time to a community group which has stepped forward and expressed an interest in saving it.
Capital budget talks are scheduled for today beginning at 4 PM in the council chambers.
The meeting is open to the public and will also be streamed online via the city’s website.
A public meeting to discuss the budget will be scheduled for early in the New Year — and it’s expected that council will give final approval on February 6th.
