Budget 2023: Clarendon keeps mill rate steady amid increasing expenses

Budget 2023: Clarendon keeps mill rate steady amid increasing expenses

Note: Some of the audio clips below have been edited for length and clarity.

The Municipality of Clarendon is keeping with a longstanding efforts to keep its mill rate at 60 cents per $100 of evaluation, the same as it’s been for years. Mayor Ed Walsh and Director General Patricia Hobbs spoke with CHIP 101.9 about how the latest budget document took shape.

Expenses

Walsh said that one of the biggest increases in expenses in this year’s budget came from the shares that the municipality kicks up to the MRC, which, all told totaled around $150,000. The expenses were broken down in the documents provided by Clarendon, which listed budgeted expenses of $143,032 for MRC assessments for 2023, compared to $102,383 in 2022, an increase of $40,649. Hobbs explained that the total is calculated by taking a percentage of each municipality’s evaluation.

MRC administrative expenses totaled $160,751 in the 2023 budget compared to $102,047 in 2022, an increase of $58,704. Clarendon’s shares in the region’s public security infrastructure also increased, roughly $13,000 for police and around $11,000 for MRC fire protection services.

One area in the 2023 budget where Clarendon was able to cut costs was in the amount allocated for snow removal, as their expenses for their contracts as well as sand and equipment rentals went down by $4,500 and $30,000 respectively. Hobbs explained that they “wanted to be realistic” and the amount in the budget reflects the actual cost of the contracts.

Revenues 

Both Walsh and Hobbs said that they do their best every year to keep the municipality’s mill rate steady at 60 cents per $100 of evaluation, which has been the rate for as long as either of them can remember. Walsh noted that this can sometimes mean that they don’t qualify for as much from certain grants.

The full summary of Clarendon’s 2023 budget is available here: Clarendon budget