No raised taxes with Belleville’s 2022 capital budget

By Shira Rubinoff

BELLEVILLE — There will be no increase in the amount of taxes that citizens need to pay towards city capital projects, even though the funding needed for 2022 has broken a record with nearly $87 million.

Monday morning saw a special council meeting that included a 2022 budget presentation made by the Director of Finance/Treasurer, Dr. Carol J. Hinze.

According to the budget presentation, the city of Belleville initially had 113 projects to approve for 2022 which totaled a cost of $76.6 million.

At the end of the meeting, Councillor Paul Carr brought up a new project that would add $10 million to the initial budget.

The project, a rehabilitation for Farnham Road, was proposed by Carr for the safety of people using the road every day.

“There’s three large active subdivisions that require Farnham Road access on a daily basis,” Carr said.

The road work will be funded by long term debt, and will include road reconstruction, work on the curbs and gutters and new “provisions for active transportation.”

The funding for capital projects generally comes from four places: existing taxes, development charges, borrowing money and federal or provincial grants.

Chart courtesy of the Belleville City Hall YouTube account

That leaves taxes and user fees making up around 25% of the funding.

Chart courtesy of the City of Belleville

According to Mayor Mitch Panciuk, the lack of a tax increase for the capital budget will make it easier for the spring’s operating budget to keep citizens taxes from skyrocketing.