At the final budget meeting on Monday, Cavan Monaghan Council approved a residential Tax Rate increase of 2.65% to fund the municipal operating and capital expenditures for 2026. This is lower than the 4.82% rate in the second draft. Part of the reduction stems from the determination that some of the expenditures that have already been funded for growth-related studies were partially eligible for payment by Development Charges. This allowed the removal of $209,394 from the tax levy. An earlier decision to allocate the proceeds of the sale of two parcels of land, one for a new hydro installation and another for the expansion of the Millbrook Post Office have been added to the allocation for the Asset Replacement Reserves(ARR). It was noted that these sales were “one- off’s” but the Mayor indicated that municipal land purchases and sales are common and there were be more in the future.
These moves made a full 100% of depreciation to ARR more affordable, however concern about the economic environment resulted in a decision to reduce the ARR contribution by roughly $500,000, resulting in a transfer representing just over 98% of depreciation. This is the highest dollar value and percentage value of ARR transfers in the municipality’s history. These reserves are used to finance the replacement of capital assets as they become obsolete over time.
This tax levy increase is slightly below recent rate hikes which have ranged from a low of 2.85% in 2021 to a high of 3.4 % in 2024.