County seeks to hang on to upload savings from Province

New Tecumseth Free Press Online July 3, 2012

Simcoe County councillors will gather at the Simcoe County Museum tomorrow for a day long strategic planning session, and among the topics for discussion includes how to allocate the savings being realized by the gradual uploading of social service costs by the Province.

A report on the agenda indicates that in 2013, it’s estimated the County will save $1.1 million, exclusive of any projected caseload increases or hikes in administration cost.

“However, after applying a seven per cent increase to caseload costs, as well as a two per cent increase to cost of administration, the annual savings is only estimated to be $670,624 in 2013 over the 2012 budget,” according to the report. “

In 2012, the County tapped ratepayers for $7.68 million, which was approximately $1 million below $2011, to fund the shortfall between $86 million projected revenues and the $93.8 million expenditures. While Client benefits increased to $79 million or about 2.6 per cent, County salaries, administration climbed by about 39 per cent to approximately $14 million. The County was also spending about $591,773 on facility upgrades mostly in Collingwood and Orillia.

The Ontario Works Caseworker complement consists of 51 Caseworkers who oversee a total caseload of approximately 7700 cases as well as 13 Caseworkers who perform functions of a specialzed nature such as emergency assistance, self employment services as well as file audit functions.

The upload, intended to remove social services from being funded by property taxes, was announced by the Ontario Liberal government in 2007, with the start date in 2008, and fully funded by 2018. This year, the municipal share was 17.2 per cent of the cost, going down to 14.2 per cent in 2013.

“There was a suggestion raised during the 2012 budget deliberations to share the savings related to the upload with member municipalities, however, if this is even prudent given our substantial social services requirements, the logistics with respect to how the savings could even be fairly transferred back to a member municipalities is complicated. Rather than a transfer back to member municipalities, another option may be for the County to take on an external expense that is currently paid at the local level, such as costs related to the conservation authorities. Another option would be to utilize savings to keep future tax rates at the County level to a minimum, which would allow more room for member municipalities to increase taxes to address funding pressures.”

The 2013 budget prediction estimates a two per cent tax levy from the Upper Tier.