Editorial – The real ghouls come for your wallet

The Halloween season is a frightening time for those who celebrate it. Legends and lore, goblins and ghouls of all sorts come out of the woodwork. All the festivities end on October 31 when trick-or-treaters in creative costumes go out on the hunt for sugary treats. The jump scares and ghastly revelry should end on the first of November, but an even scarier specter has come to light. One that will remain seen and debated for the next three months or more – municipal tax increases.

The last three years have seen municipal property tax increases grow considerably as governments deal with the impact of pandemic-driven inflation, supply chain issues, and ever-increased costs of doing everything. Wages are only one factor in all this. Everything costs more – from large purchases like snowplows, which have nearly doubled in price in four years, to pencils and paperclips.

This year, many municipalities are starting their budget deliberations early, rather than waiting until after New Year’s. A recent meeting of the Joint Liaison Committee between SDG Counties and the City of Cornwall discussed a potential draft property tax increase of between six and nine per cent. The SDG Police Services Board was presented with the 2025 bill for OPP Services to the Counties that amounts to a 2.25 per cent tax increase. Unlike Shared Services, the OPP increase is already set in stone. SDG Counties will not begin its budget deliberations until early December but already taxpayers are going to take a ghoulish hit to their wallets.

In South Dundas, there are considerable infrastructure deficiencies that have yet to be addressed in the community. With no real change in spending priorities the last two years, residents have seen their property taxes increase 5.5 per cent in 2023, and 6.67 per cent in 2024. Combined, that is an over 12 per cent tax increase which has only maintained a general status quo.

At SDG Counties, major road infrastructure is being addressed slowly, and this has resulted in a 3.72 per cent tax increase in 2023, and a 4.36 per cent tax increase in 2024. Again, a combined over eight per cent tax increase in two years. One of the challenges at the Counties level are the requests to fill the void in funding for social programs that should be funded by the province and have been downloaded by stealth to municipalities. This region is not alone in their funding challenges. All municipalities across the province face these steep tax increases.

Elected officials in SDG Counties and the six lower-tier municipalities that comprise it – including South Dundas – need to finally have the discussion that has been kicked down the road year after year. What services are critical must be maintained. What can we no longer afford? These officials, and municipal staff, have to remember that in the end there is only one taxpayer. And in a continuing affordability crisis, the buck – and the tax increases – have to stop somewhere.

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