Report detailing Wilmot finances over past 13 years to be released next spring
Posted Dec 17, 2024 05:20:10 AM.
Last Updated Dec 17, 2024 11:14:11 AM.
A nearly 51 per cent potential property tax increase in Wilmot Township is turning heads this budget season and has many asking questions about the community’s finances.
Wilmot Council is hopeful a historical report on the township’s finances will get some answers.
Monday night, Wilmot Council passed a motion that asks staff to make a full report on the township’s previous annual tax increases, debt levels, budgets, expenses and reserve funding.
The motion reads, the report is to be presented to council next spring or early summer, and has a goal of improving, “transparency and understanding of Wilmot Township’s financial history and present poor condition.”
That “present poor condition” has been described by the township’s Acting CAO Greg Clark as a situation with minimal reserves, minimal capital funding, and a large infrastructure backlog.
The hope is this one-time massive increase will start to solve some of those problems.
The historical report will date back to 2011, with the acknowledgement that the Wilmot Recreation Complex was built in 2007 (and the pool added in 2012).
Councillor Kris Wilkinson says the report is not meant to put any previous council on the spot but rather to get some answers and insight into where this eye-popping tax increase came from.
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“I know it will take some time, I know it will be difficult work, but I think it’s one (report) that will provide a lot of answers to the community, and one that I know is a very common question.”
Clark predicts the report will require “a few hundred” hours of staff time and work.
Councillors Lillianne Dunstall and Steven Martin were the only two members to vote against the motion to put the financial report together.
Councillor Dunstall says she isn’t sure what this information is going to do to help, citing budget issues she has seen in her past two budget seasons on council.
“We sat there, and we said, ‘Nope sorry we can’t take this, we’re not going to take this, you need to cut,’ … We did it, everybody did it. We can’t do it anymore.”
One note widely accepted around the horseshoe, was that this report was meant for information purposes only, and not to “vilify” previous councils.
“We weren’t sitting in their chairs, understanding what things they were looking at or how they viewed the future. It’s very easy to look in the review mirror and say ‘Coulda, shoulda, woulda,'” said Councillor Stewart Cressman.
Councillor Harvir Sidhu introduced the motion Monday night.
The public can have their say on the draft budget at a meeting on Jan. 7.
Council will have final budget discussions on both Jan. 16 and 27.
