Charles Dickson, editor

Funded by the Local Journalism Initiative

A slightly bigger budget for MRC Pontiac was approved by the county’s 18 mayors at their monthly public meeting last week.

The 2024 budget, presented to the meeting by MRC accountant Annie Vaillancourt, is for $9,858,724, an increase of $354,666 over the budget for 2023.

Forty-three per cent of the 2024 budget – $4,206,500 – will come from municipal shares.

As Vaillancourt explained to THE EQUITY, the share each municipality contributes to the MRC budget is determined essentially by total property valuations in each municipality, to which a multiplier is applied.

While the total contribution of all municipal shares to the 2024 budget represents an increase of $54,396 (1.31 per cent) over 2023, the multiplier being applied is decreasing from $0.1329 to $0.1047 per $100 of property value, indicating a general increase in property values over the past year.

Forty-five per cent of the 2024 budget – $4,437,956 – will come from grants.

The balance of the budget is made up of $1,069,375 (11 per cent) composed of revenue derived from leasing of public lands, bank interest and payment for services provided, plus $144,897 (1 per cent) in the form of surplus revenue accumulated in 2023 and carried over to the 2024 budget.

Full details of the budget can be found on the MRC Pontiac website.