1997 County Budget - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Corporation of the County of Essex Administrator Memo TO: FROM: SUBJECT: Warden Parr and Members of County Council John Curran, Chief Administrative Officer 1997 Budget Estimates For the past few weeks and months we have all been subjected to an onslaught of incomplete information regarding future service expectations. The problem, of course, in addition to the need to know for budgetary purposes, is the stress generated by the frustration of uncertainty. While the above comment is particularly significant as it applies to 1998 and beyond, it does determine an attitude, a mindset, for 1997. Administration and, more directly, Finance Department are pleased to present the 1997 Budget Estimates to County Council indicating an increase of 1.5% over the 1996 request. This figure will meet the estimated needs of each department's operations. At the same time it will allow a contribution to reserves to help offset some of the unknowns alluded to in my opening paragraph. Not everything is an unknown. For instance there is the requirement that all outstanding pay equity adjustments are to be paid by January 1st, 1998. That will have a significant impact on the expense side of our ledger. Service realignment, (not downloading) is another question. Our initial assessment of the cost of new or higher funded services at the municipal level is necessarily incomplete. We know that approximately $72 million will come off the residential property tax base as Education takes a shift to the Province. We can quantify that approximately $35 million will be put back on the residential property tax base to meet the cost of those new cost items that we can estimate. The problem is that the list of known cost items is shorter than the list of unknown cost items. 360 Fairview Avenue West, Essex Ontario NSM 1Y6 - 776-6441