Local municipalities are struggling with a large budget increase from the Saugeen Conservation Authority.
The Authority needed two votes to pass their budget recently — which carries a nine per cent increase over 2011 — or $123,630.
The general levy is nearly 1.5 million dollars, split between 15 member municipalities, including Saugeen Shores and Chatsworth.
Saugeen Shores Vice Deputy Mayor Doug Gowanlock isn’t thrilled they received the largest increase — of over 30 thousand dollars.
Gowanlock says one of the big reasons their portion increased disproportionately is because Saugeen Shores has grown.
But he says that’s not to negate the fact Saugeen Conservation’s budget keeps increasing.
Gowanlock feels it’s only going to get worse in the long-run if the Province doesn’t provide more relief.
Chatsworth Councillor Brian Gamble says these types of increases just don’t wash well with their municipality anymore.
Gamble notes that originally the Province split costs 50/50, but now municipalities are taking on the lions share.
Gamble says they’ve reached the point where they can’t sustain it anymore.
He says the indexing for some senior staff has gotten quite high and cuts may need to be made to salaries and benefits.
Close to 84 thousand dollars of the levy increase is due to salaries and benefits.
Gamble notes they were hit by increases of around 40 thousand from both Grey Sauble and Saugeen
