With the federal budget-and whatever municipal infrastructure spending it may contain not coming down until next week, Orangeville Council's Budget Committee made few commitments to capital projects at its meeting Monday night.

To keep in line with its aim of preventing any property tax increase, the committee has $877,000 in the budget for capital projects. Rather than commit it all to specific projects, council carried a motion by Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock that $112,600 be set aside in an "Infrastructure Funding Readiness" fund, in case the senior levels of government show a willingness to share the cost of any major infrastructure work within the town.

"When the provincial government, or the feds, are willing to pay (a portion of the cost) of a major project, I say we should always take advantage," Mr. Maycock said.

In the same vein, Councillor Scott Wilson spoke out at the same meeting and suggested that council's aim for no townonly tax increase may be counter-productive to maintaining the town's infrastructure in years to come.

"I think we should be ready," said Mr. Wilson. "If we go for zero, we're going backwards because inflation is not (at) zero. We should be adding money for the infrastructure."

His comments came in light of a report from Treasurer Wayne Church that the townonly rate increase could go as high as 2.03 per cent on an average Orangeville home, with a value of approximately $247,000, without the ratepayer's property taxes increasing.

This is due to decreases in the county and provincial education levies.

Property tax is determined by multiplying the dollar value of a property by itself and the sum of the town, county and education tax fluctuations, and then dividing that by the dollar value of the house.

In his report, Mr. Church said a 1% increase would mean $202,500 more in town revenues. A 2% increase would bring in $405,000 and a 3% hike would equal $607,000.

Mr. Wilson says having such money in reserve will make Orangeville better positioned to take advantage of partnerships with the different levels of governments, both of whom has stressed emphasis on improving infrastructure.

As well, he says paying less tax now only means paying more later. "To me, it's reality. For years, I heard the mantra of zeropercent increases. But, after that, we had 20 percent increases."

The capital projects that did get the go-ahead Monday were as follows: Reconstruction of Hansen Boulevard and Amelia Street and reconstruction of the Hansen and Blind Line intersection; walk lights at trail crossings (Fourth and Fifth avenues at Highway 10); replacement of the ice resurfacer at Tony Rose Sports Centre; construction of a trail alongside the local rail line; replacement of playground equipment at Kin Family Park and Kay Cee Gardens; replacement of a tractor, tractor/loader and flex mower; and upgrading the new parking lot on the south side of Broadway.

The 2009 operating and capital budgets will come before Council on Feb. 9.

Town treasurer Wayne Church told the Finance Committee higher insurance costs for 2009 and an estimated $62,000 deficit from 2008 must be added to this year's budget.

The committee has now recommended funding a $5,000 portion of the Mayor's Senior's Advisory Committee from reserves instead of the tax levy and cutting the $15,000 First Night event for 2009 since the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration will be held December 28.

The committee also reviewed a report recommending that the Town move from a shared (with the County) Information Services Department to a Town-only department at no additional cost in 2009.

The result of all these changes would be that a single family detached home that's assessed at $247,250 would have an $11.94 increase in the Town portion of taxes for 2009 but an offsetting $22.48 cut in the County's portion of the tax bill, and the province's education levy will drop by $15.54.