Capital Budget Funding Sources

Funding for the Capital Budget comes from many sources, including property taxes, grants, reserves, and user fees. The Capital Budget funds investments in infrastructure that provide a long-term benefit to the community like roads, vehicles, community centres and parks.

$2,793,667 18%

Property Taxes (Tax Levy)

Property tax bills are divided between the City of Owen Sound, the County of Grey and the local school boards. Owen Sound uses its portion of the taxes to pay for City programs and services. This includes the services Owen Sound families rely on, like fire and emergency prevention services, parks and trails, recycle collection, snow removal and capital budget assets, repairs and investments such as road repairs and building maintenance.

40% $6,185,000

Grants and External Funding

The City of Owen Sound will benefit from almost $6.2 million in grant and external funding for the 2023 Capital Budget. This includes donations, grants, user fees, Gas Tax, OCIF Formula and Development Charges that contribute to Capital projects.

15% $2,494,000

Reserves

The City of Owen Sound maintains Reserve Funds that are committed to funding capital projects identified in long-term capital plans. These reserves offset project costs contingent on grant funding, so tax dollars are dedicated to guaranteed capital projects. This includes carryforward money that has been held in capital reserves to off-set future project costs.

$15,714,400

27%

$4,240,833

Water and Wastewater Rates

These are paid by residents and property owners for water-related services to ensure the City can provide safe drinking water, collect wastewater effectively and save for future infrastructure needs.

Debt

0% $0

The City may use debt to fund specific projects. This helps spread the project’s cost over the asset’s lifespan, or be offset by future revenues generated from the project’s completion. The 2023 capital budget is free of any debt funding.

Unfunded

$675,000

This is the additional value of projects that are unfunded in the current 2023 capital budget. This amount is not included in the $15.7M total capital budget mentioned above.