After reducing the County’s tax supported budget to a 2.5% increase (as reported in last week’s Maple Leaf), councillors were asked by Mayor Dennis Travale to look the budget numbers over one more time for additional cost cutting.

And councillors came up with more cuts last week.

In the end, taxpayers will see a 1.95 percent increase over last year. For a home assessed at $169,000, the tax bill will total $2,240 or $43 more than 2009.

During discussion on budget cuts, Councillor John Wells suggested reducing the Police Budget by $300,000. Each year the OPP provides an estimate of the policing costs for Norfolk County. Traditionally, that number has been high to allow for unforeseen events. By reducing the budget amount, council is following past years experience.

Councillor Charlie Luke said Norfolk County “is the biggest employer and so far we haven’t mentioned getting rid of FTEs (full time equivalent staff) and that’s a good thing but we have to drop some things to get dollars down.”

He went on to suggest dropping $4,000 worth of lateral filing cabinets from a $8,000 request; $10,000 from By-law services; $10,000 from fleet equipment; $15,000 from materials and supplies; $20,000 from winter control because of the mild winter -- all of which passed.

Councillor Roger Geysens suggested taking $120,000 from Contingency Reserves.

At one point Councillor Jim Oliver questioned “at 2.1% that is the lowest level in Norfolk County history and how low can we go?”

Mayor Travale asked “if we reduce the budget in any field or any area, will anybody die. We’re not a private corporation. We have social responsibilities. In an economic recession we don’t lose any customers. We all have to look at it that we have social obligations.”

Councillor Luke said “we’re expected to look at our costs,” adding “the people have to make up the money. The provincial government has spent our money like drunken sailors. People are looking at this council and saying ‘we’re hurting’.”

“We’ve got to start realizing that we can’t run this county the way we did five or ten or 50 years ago. It’s going to change a lot in the next while. We have to be sensitive that companies are packing up and going. I’m hearing from more and more seniors than ever before,” Councillor Luke said.

Councillor Roger Geysens said “there’s very few people getting a two percent increase. Private industry is cutting 10 percent. We’re not doing that. We are in the hardest economic times since we got into Norfolk County. Some say this is an election budget. This is not an election budget. We need to get this budget down to where everybody feels comfortable; to inflict as little pain as we can and get to a budget that most people in the County can live with.”

Councillor Mike Columbus said “we’ve had a lot of job losses. The food bank lines are getting longer and longer. All vacant positions should be reviewed before being filled.”

In response to reviewing all vacant positions before any staff is replaced, County Manager Bill Allcock said it would be “burdensome to do”. Mentioning the turnover of staff at Norview Lodge, he said no position could be filled and every person “would need a report and therefore overtime to get the reports written.”

Councillor John Wells said “I don’t believe we have cut one service to any resident of Norfolk County. We have increased the level of service to Norfolk. We have not cut one staff member. We have increased our user fees to residents and increased water rates. We have taxed residents in other areas and it is all money they have to find,” adding “this has been the best budget procedure we have ever done.”

When all the cuts and moves from the contingency fund were tallied, the County treasurer noted the 2010 tax increase would be 1.95 percent over last year. - Wednesday, February 10, 2010