County tries to keep lid on 2025 tax increase

Orders review of ways it could trim hike to 6.5% from 9.7%

Thompson Bridge on Skinkle Road now belongs to Trent Hills.

The slice of your property tax bill that goes to Northumberland County will rise in 2025, but county councillors are looking for ways to limit the hike.

At its meeting on Nov. 20, council passed a motion asking staff to recommend cuts that will keep the increase to 6.5 per cent. That could be challenging since the current draft budget, including recent spending, would mean a 9.76 per cent increase, Director of Finance Mathew Nitsch said.

In the council agenda was a draft budget presented to a council committee on Nov. 5 that projected an 8.58 per cent increase. But since that meeting the county has agreed to spend about $500,000 on additional costs for the new homeless shelter at 310 Division Street in Cobourg and to contribute $100,000 to the Art Gallery of Northumberland, also located in Cobourg.

Cobourg Mayor Lucas Cleveland was quick to say that he didn’t want staff to start cutting the budget by removing those recent spending approvals for his area.

Council went into private session to discuss the budget issue and where to recommend cuts that will be considered at its Dec. 18 meeting.

Cleveland came out of the closed session asking how much the county spends on bridges. He didn’t mention the Hector Macmillan bridge by name, but the $30-million project is the most expensive capital expenditure in the county’s plans. The 2025 draft budget includes more than $1 million for planning and purchase of properties on Second Street in Campbellford that will be torn down. Construction is scheduled to start next year and be completed in 2027.

One item on the council’s agenda was the final transfer of the Thompson Bridge to Trent Hills after it was repaired. The county spent $2.3 million on the new bridge in 2023 and then had to spend thousands more when the bridge was damaged before being handed over.

Cleveland asked staff to look at whether the 10 other bridges the county owns that are on lower municipalities’ roads could be transferred without repairing them first. The county is responsible for 112 bridges, but most are on its own roads.

The first recommendation from council was that the councillors not get a pay increase this year. Normally, their pay would have increased to match the cost of living.

Cramhe Township Mayor Mandy Martin called for a review of the public works department, in particular its roads section. She argued that since it is a major cost centre it should get a close look, instead of focusing on other areas that might be simpler to cut.

Cleveland turned to a topic he has mentioned regularly at county council, his view that there are too many levels of local government. “Do we really need eight separate governments for 88,000 people?” he asked. “What are we trying to accomplish at this level of government for the next 10 to 15 years?”

Council asked staff to undertake an organizational review of the government levels during 2025.

The council motion also suggested a hiring freeze in 2025, and a salary freeze for the chief administrative officer and other senior staff.

Holding the tax increase to 6.5 per cent will be particularly hard because the county allocates 1 per cent to its base tax increase for an infrastructure fund and 1 per cent for a housing reserve.

Scott Jibb, Mayor of Hamilton Township, said he doubted that the 6.5% target can be reached “without major impacts that we may or may not be willing to accept.”

Trent Hills council will consider its 2025 budget at the council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 26. I’ll write about the draft plan as soon as it is posted on the town’s website.

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