Mono Council has instructed its chief administrative officer to write a "strong letter" to Premier Dalton McGuinty complaining at his government's failure to compensate the town for its lack of tax revenue from farms and forests.

Council took the action last week on receiving a report from CAO Keith McNenly which explained that the government's policy on farm tax supports in combination with a grant "clawback" currently costs the municipality nearly $600,000 a year, or roughly 10 per cent of the town's 2007 budget.

Mr. McNenly traced the problem to the Common Sense Revolution (CSR) of the Mike Harris Conservative government, which ended a long-standing provincial policy of compensating rural municipalities for the lack of tax revenue from farms and forests.

Prior to the CSR, rural municipalities sent individual farmers the total property tax bill based on their assessment and the farms could apply for provincial reimbursement at 75 per cent of the cost.

As a result of CSR downloading, the municipalities were required to bill the farmers only 25 per cent of the normal tax, with other residents having to make up the shortfall through higher tax levies.

Mr. McNenly said the McGuinty government "has been trying to phase in some measure of financial support" to the municipalities, in part through a program called the Ontario Municipal Partnership Program (OMPF), which includes a component of farm/forest compensation.

Under the program, Mono would normally have been entitled to a grant totalling $592,169 in rural support and local police services. However, the grant formula has seen the government clawing back $250,364, leaving a net grant of just $342,169 in 2007.

Additionally, he said, the farm and forest part of the grant program is being delivered as an equalization grant. "This means that it is withheld from municipalities who do not need the support based on Provincial formulae. It also means that this is a grant we will not receive in the future."

He said other Dufferin municipalities, including Amaranth, do get the grant but East Garafraxa, like Mono, doesn't qualify.

Mr. McNenly said he had personally objected, on behalf of Mono, "to the downloading of the farm tax support program onto the farmers and their neighbours during the Common Sense Revolution, as did my colleagues in other rural municipalities, along with Mono council of the day."

He noted that the program was based on a recognition that a strong agricultural community and the resulting produce was of benefit to all Ontario residents, not just those in the local municipality.