At its public meeting Monday night, Orangeville council put the official stamp on the 2010 municipal budget without making changes to the document it agreed upon at its Jan. 25 meeting.

The operating budget for the town in 2010 will around $30.9 million and the budget for capital projects will be around $3.5 million. This translates to a 2.5 per cent increase in the town-only portion of residents’ property taxes.

That figure, combined with a reduction in the county levy and an expected zero increase in the education tax, will mean an overall 1.5 per cent hike, or $48 on a house currently assessed at $250,000.

Budget committee chair Councillor Sylvia Bradley summarized the 2010 budget as a “good, middleof the-road document” which, while actually pleasing no one on council, was a reasonable compromise.

“I came into (Monday’s) meeting expecting to see more budget-cutting,” said Ms. Bradley in an interview, pointing to the fact the budget had passed unanimously. “I’m glad that didn’t happen.”

Mayor Rob Adams stated in an interview Tuesday that he would have liked to see more possible spending cuts that would lead to lower property taxes. “We worked with staff to see if there were places we could make further cuts,” he said, “but we realized there wasn’t any more meat to carve off.”

In her commentary on the budget preparation, Ms. Bradley agreed with an earlier statement by Councillor Scott Wilson that the $100,000 allocated for reserves was not enough.

“We haven’t determined what an appropriate goal for reserves would be,” said Ms. Bradley, “but $100,000 is such a little amount. It would take us years, at that rate, to get our reserves back to respectable levels.

“Every year, we have to borrow for operations. If we had sufficient reserves, we wouldn’t have to.”

The branch of the municipality that saw its budget requests most severely hit was the Orangeville Public Library. It had entered the 2010 deliberations with a request for a $290,000 increase in funding.

The final budget sees the library receiving a funding increase of only $84,000.

Mr. Wilson put forth a last-ditch effort to salvage more funding for the library with a budget amendment. He also indicated there had been some confusion during the Jan. 25 deliberations. “It seemed that the increase in the library budget was approved,” Mr. Wilson recalled, “and then it was reconsidered and reduced.”

Toward the end of the Jan. 25 meeting, Councillor Mary Rose successfully motioned that $78,000 be reduced in the library budget. On Monday night, Mr. Wilson’s amendment featured increases in specific areas, along with dollar figures, that he urged council to reconsider.

These dealt with staffing issues, such as $30,000 to ensure there are staffers on hand when others take their lunch breaks, $8,000 to ensure backup during staff vacations and $12,000 for summer students.

“If council has any enthusiasm for all, or any, of these, the library board would certainly appreciate it,” said Mr. Wilson.

His amendment was defeated.

In a matter unrelated to the budget, Mr. Wilson presented a motion that local sports organizations pay the same fees for the use of fields the town recently purchased from the Upper Grand District School Board.

The motion, which called for 2010 fees to be the same as 2009, was carried.