Budget discussions are continuing at Milton’s Town Council.
A big focus was the $2,808,636 in provincial funding for the Safe Restart program (pending amendments due to eligibility criteria) announced recently. The additional funding will play a big role in Milton balancing the 2020 budget. The Town is projecting financial pressure somewhere between $2.4 million and $3.2 million. That means, if the funding is finalized as expected, the Town could either have a surplus (which would be a nice surprise following the kind of year that 2020 has been) or still be in the red.
The Regional Councillor for Milton’s Ward 4, Zeeshan Hamid, says COVID-19 has made it hard for the Town to make money from its usual services. So, they’ll need as much help as possible in order to avoid raising property taxes.
Audio PlayerThe discussions at the Town Council meeting centred pretty heavily on this additional funding, with the Town Councillor for Ward 2, John Challinor, raising the point that Milton shouldn’t be counting on additional funding from higher levels of government to always be there. He says that next year should be the year we should be worried about, considering we don’t know how things are going to shape up.
Audio PlayerCouncillor Challinor adds that Milton is in a better position than most municipalities in Ontario when it comes to the level of capital and reserves that it can fall back on. That means it is better able to deal with deficits coming from unexpected events like the COVID-19 pandemic. If there were ever a time to pull the giant rainy day fund jug off of your fridge and smash it open, now is that time.
He explains that Milton’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Glen Cowan, is working to ensure that the Ontario Government’s additional funding won’t disappear as we head into the uncertainty that is 2021.
Audio PlayerWhere is Milton’s revenue going to come from?
That’s what Regional Councillor for Milton’s Ward 3, Colin Best, is curious to find out. He says Milton has lost a lot of revenue in the last seven months because of the pandemic, and that is more than just the lack of services the Town is able to provide.
Audio PlayerThe 2021 Budget will be discussed in full later this year. myFM News will be covering the story as it progresses.
If you’d like to read the full report from Monday on the Capital and Operating Financial Statements of August, 2020, you can read that here.
You can also read up on several other stories coming out of Monday’s meeting down below:
