For the second year running, the board for the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority is having a hard time agreeing on a price to deal with the area's garbage.
A 4-3 decision saw city councillors out vote their county counterparts and reject a recommended budget with a 4.1% levy increase — representing an added $453,050 municipalities in Windsor-Essex would send to the EWSWA.
Last year saw the city reject a $290,000 increase before the budget was ultimately adopted in its near-original form.
The recommended 2017 budget would see a $1.7-million surplus from last year put into reserves, but city councillor and board member Fred Francis feels the money could be used right away.
"When you're able to essentially take care of costs in this budget and increase your reserves at the same time, that's something I think we should take a look at," says Francis. "I think most people would think that a reasonable approach."
Francis says the surplus would allow the board to top up its reserves more than it expected to a year ago, while reducing the increase being asked of the municipalities.
The city is looking to hold the line on its tax rate again in its upcoming budget, sending a letter to the EWSWA in July requesting to be charged the same amount in 2017 as it was in 2016 for landfill services.
The city's portion of the increase under the recommended $2/tonne increase from the 2016 budget would be $241,395. The county would pay $211,655 more. Administration also provided options for $4/tonne increases that would see the city pay $341,000 more and the county $304,000 more compared to 2016.
In his report, EWSWA General Manager Eli Maodus cautioned the board in shying away from a rate increase.
"The less of an increase today, the more of an increase in the future," says Maodus. "It's not that the stabilization reserve can't support a draw on it to finance 2017, it's just for planning purposes it's probably not advisable."
County councillors on the board sided with administration's recommended budget.
LaSalle Mayor and board member Ken Antaya doesn't think spending the surplus on reducing the rate today is the prudent way to go.
"We want to reduce the obligation in the future so that our kids are not looking at huge bubble payments in the year 2035 and 2040," says Antaya. "If we have the surplus now, we can lessen that burden."
The EWSWA is trying to bring its budget back to balance — not withstanding last year's surplus — as costs continue to rise while revenues stay flat. A ten year forecast done for the EWSWA shows the amount needed from the area municipalities to fund landfill services will jump to $15.2-million by 2026 compared to the $11.5-million that's being asked for in 2017.
A special meeting is being organized for November 29 to address the budget impasse.