{"id":138492,"date":"2023-01-30T13:39:25","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T18:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=138492"},"modified":"2023-03-01T13:01:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T18:01:51","slug":"sutton-adopts-2023-budget-property-tax-increase-faced-with-a-host-of-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/sutton-adopts-2023-budget-property-tax-increase-faced-with-a-host-of-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Sutton adopts 2023 budget, property tax increase met with a host of concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Town of Sutton adopted its 2023 budget at a special meeting held on Dec. 14 to a majority council vote. The budget was presented to the public at the town council meeting held on Jan. 18.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This year's budget amounts to $14,706,731; a budget that was deemed necessary due to increases in operational costs, including the salaries of town employees, and inflation rates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The budget calls for a tax increase between 11.5 per cent and about 15 per cent for homeowners depending on the value of the house.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The tax increase, however, is deemed too high by some Sutton residents. A petition, spearheaded by Victor Marchand, has been circulating that has so far garnered over 700 signatures against the budget. Two councillors also expressed their concerns on the property tax increase.<\/p>\n

Marchand presented the petition to council at the Jan. meeting asking the town to review the budget.<\/p>\n

Despite the expressed concerns, mayor Robert Beno\u00eet made it clear that the town is sticking by its decision in order to fill in a gap left by a tax freeze over the years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe former administration, for about the last 10 to 20 years, didn\u2019t want to increase taxes. You will see in the budget that it was always stable at $10 million. It\u2019s impossible to give the services that we have today at $10 million, we need at least $15 million to $16 million,\u201d explained Beno\u00eet. \u201c(\u2026) We have a gap here to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our spending at this time is way over the revenue that we have, continued Beno\u00eet, we cannot make a deficit for the town, so what do we do?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is a new homeowner, they pay the town a certain percentage depending on the price of the house. We had revenues of about $1.6 million to $2 million for the last two to three years,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhy? Because there was a boom in the housing market. (\u2026) Can we expect that to be maintained today with the cost of living, with interests rates, and all? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s prudent for the town to count on those revenues to offset the difference between revenues and spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beno\u00eet noted that if the town cuts its spending, it would be \u201cterrible.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at the minimal level. (\u2026) We would have to fire people, there would be less work done on the roads, and less services for the population,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Beno\u00eet, just the cost of diesel to run the municipal trucks increased by 63 per cent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo what do we do? We don\u2019t run the trucks anymore? We don\u2019t update the roads? We don\u2019t repair them? It doesn\u2019t make any sense. The only way to go is to increase it (property taxes) taking into account that people who have houses below $400,000, which is the average cost of a house right now, will play about $250 to $300 more per year. That means it\u2019s about $25 more a month,\u201d Beno\u00eet said, breaking down the increase for CIDI.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the value of a house is less than $200,000, it is even less than $250 a year, continued Beno\u00eet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to realize that although it\u2019s 11% or 14%, it means in relation to the cost of their house,\u201d he emphasized.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Addressing the petition launched by Sutton resident Victor Marchand, Beno\u00eet said it offers no alternative solutions to fill in the financial gap the municipality is experiencing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to make any decisions with a petition that only says they are against it,\u201d he noted. \u201c(\u2026) It\u2019s the same thing for the two councillors who are saying they don\u2019t want to increase the taxes, they are against that. I asked them what they propose. For a month and a half, we haven\u2019t heard anything about what we should do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beno\u00eet told CIDI that he will be there to inform and respond to citizen\u2019s questions regarding the budget at all meetings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His administration\u2019s focus is maintaining the municipal, social, and cultural services that he says benefit Sutton residents and keeping town employees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in 20 years that we have an exceptional team. Do we want to demoralize those people so that they get away?,\u201d mentioned Beno\u00eet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CIDI reached out to the two municipal councillors that voted against the budget Lynda Graham and Carole Lebel.<\/p>\n

In an email to CIDI, Graham wrote that she made her views very clear at the meeting on Jan. 18 and especially at the meeting on Dec. 14. She said that she \u201crespects the decisions taken by the majority of the council\u201d and she does \u201cnot wish to continue the debate further.\u201d She declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Lebel also reached out to CIDI by email thanking us for our our invitation, but declined to comment. She said that the arguments at the base of her decision that led her to vote against the budget were well pronounced at the last two meetings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CIDI tried to reach out to Marchand, but could not track down the correct contact information. He expressed his concerns at the council meeting on Jan. 18 and we have included a clip in this episode of Townships\u2019 Daily News Bits<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the Jan. 18 council meeting here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find more information on the budget here.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the full interview below:<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Sutton adopted its 2023 budget at a special meeting held on Dec. 14 to a majority council vote. The budget was presented to the public at the town council meeting held on Jan. 18.\u00a0 This year’s budget amounts to $14,706,731; a budget that was deemed necessary due to increases in operational costs,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":137180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,21655,225],"tags":[1414,22038,22966,12073,22967,14131,9780,22964,649,11958,3961,22965],"radio":[246],"origine":[274,259,260],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138492"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142804,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138492\/revisions\/142804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138492"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=138492"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=138492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}