Township staff deserves praise for getting budget down

Granting the premise that none of us particularly enjoys paying taxes, we do have to accept the fact that like death, they are a reality.

Given that, we all want the taxes we pay to be as low as possible.

So King Township staffers deserve praise for sharpening their pencils and getting the proposed tax increase down from previous contemplated levels.

King's 2007 budget is still a work in progress, and we are a couple of weeks away from seeing anything finalized. But things are looking a lot better than they did two months ago.

Early in February, staff presented a proposal that called for a 5.99 per cent tax increase. That was certainly a lot more appealing than the possibility of a 31 per cent hike that had been mentioned a couple of weeks before. In fairness, no one ever seriously suggested an increase on that order. Staff had simply presented a list of desirable projects, including substantial road work to be carried out concurrently with the installation of sewers in King City and Nobleton, along with what it would cost if council opted to pay the whole shot without borrowing. The bare facts were given to council, and they directed their attention to financing that work through debentures.

And councillors are now looking at setting up a reserve fund to help pay off those debentures when the bills start coming due, and that actually has raised the proposed tax hike that staff presented last week.

No matter, at 3.5 per cent, things have certainly improved a lot in the last two months.

And as we stated above, this budget is still a work in progress, meaning there is time for the news to get better.

Still, there's a good lesson to be remembered here. There are some who might look at early projected tax increases and, for want of a better term, freak. We all have to remember that councillors and staff need to get all the projects and associated numbers on the table. That's when the decision making really starts.