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Hike of 6.55 per cent translates to 2.93 on tax bill Continued from page 1 9 · Wednesday, March 7, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com Budget committee recommends discussing sale of Gairloch Gardens main house replaced with a modified route 10 (West Industrial South). Cole also called for the reduction of evening service (the last two evening trips) on route 25 (Aspen Forest), the merging of routes 31 (Bridge-Great Lakes) and 32 (Burloak North) into one and removal of off-peak service on route 22 (Upper Glen Abbey), to be offset with more offpeak service on route 19 (River Oaks). The budget committee recommended a $27,500 budget reduction for Oakville Galleries to match recent staffing changes. The committee is calling for reallocation of ice times for service delivery efficiencies. At a previous budget meeting, Community Services Commissioner Domenic Lunardo said this reallocation would not result in reduced ice time for user groups, but would require the groups to be more flexible with ice time and the arenas they use. Changes would be made in consultation with the users, he noted, and are expected to save $20,000 in 2012 and $60,000 a year. Another $16,000 will be saved in 2012 by removing five underutilized crossing guard locations by September 2012 -- Dorval Drive and Rebecca Street; Chartwell Road and Michael Terrace; McDonald Road and Gloucester Avenue; Third Line and Hixon inflation, according to Adams. Oakville's property tax hike of 2.93 per cent, he said, is lower than the 2011 Consumer Price Index (CPI) of Toronto, which was at three per cent. Adams said the budget is sustainable with future budget increases expected to also be in line with inflation. This includes a property tax increase of three per cent for 2013 and 2.8 per cent for 2014. The 6.55 per cent increase is less than the 6.7 per cent hike proposed in January and less than the eight per cent forecast last year. "We are keeping our house in order," said Adams. "We have reformed our funding for infrastructure renewal so that we are in a very unique position among municipalities. Our funding for replacing decaying infrastructure now equals its rate of depreciation." Paring the hike to 6.55 per cent required some sacrifices. Oakville Transit routes 110, 10, 25, 31, 32, 22, and 19 will be adjusted to save $79,000 in 2012 and $158,700 annually. Transit Director Barry Cole recommended route 110 (West Industrial North), be "We are keeping our house in order." Tom Adams, Ward 6 Councillor 2012 Budget Committee chair Street; and Lakeshore Road and East Street. The Town's formal employee satisfaction survey will be reduced to being done once every four years -- to save $10,000 annually beginning in 2014. Town staff will also enter discussions with Oakville Galleries on potential relocation of its gallery housed in the main house in the lakefront Gairloch Gardens, and to report on options, including the potential timing of the severance and sale of the main house at Gairloch Gardens. The 2012 net Town of Oakville levy request sits at $145.9 million. That includes a $238.9 million operating budget and a $71.5 million capital budget. The capital budget rose by $11.2 million due to the Town's recent purchase of the Canada Post building on Church Street. Some top capital projects include $10.1 million for road expansion; $6 million for a new maintenance and operations facility in north Oakville, including an interim fire station; $4.8 million in road rehabilitation; and $1.5 million to battle the Emerald Ash Borer infestation. "This year's budget is about the progress we are making on our path to create Canada's most livable town for ourselves, for our children and for our grandchildren. Together we are focusing on a clean environment and increasing livability as well as value, efficiency and performance," said Oakville Mayor Rob Burton. "We are building strong reserves. We meet our infrastructure renewal needs now on a pay-as-you-go basis. I'm incredibly proud of that. Cities around us are borrowing to meet these needs. We don't need to do that. This year, like last year, we've held the overall total tax increase to the level of CPI or less, as we promised, and that was the unanimous direction to staff and the budget committee last year and they have delivered." Burton credited council's decision to shift to Performance Based Budgeting (PB2) five years ago with bringing about some of this success, stating PB2 has uncovered millions in operational efficiencies. MONDAY TUESDAY 1/2 the priCe Cheese or ChoColate fondue 4-7pm, at the ivy bar LAST NOW FINALLY!! ALL 5 STORES OU SE! 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