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This is the first of a series of posts looking at the Town of Parry Sound (TOPS) financial figures for 2011 and 2012. For information on the process and objectives please take a look at the page “TOPS Financials“.

The reported revenue for Parry Sound in 2011 was $27.97 million. There were three major sources of revenue as defined by the TOPS budget summary. These were ‘Taxation’, “Payment in Lieu of Taxation’ and ‘Non-Taxation Revenues’. A summary of their contributions is presented in the chart below.

What is readily apparent is that taxation, primarily property taxation, accounts for a little more than a third of the town’s total revenue. The majority of the revenue is sourced from non-taxation sources. Just one percent of revenues are derived from ‘Payment in Lieu of Taxes’, with the largest source being the Government of Canada, presumably for federal facilities located in Parry Sound. But we will perhaps look at this in future posts, it is a small component of total revenue.

So where does the taxation revenue come from? The table below provides a breakdown of the taxation revenue. It’s worth noting that residential property provides most of the taxation revenue followed by commercial property. Industrial properties account for only 2% of the revenue, about $150,000. It’s worth pointing out that the railways pay a total of $4,316 for their right to own land and operate in Parry Sound. Even the pipelines pay more than this.

The non-taxation revenue is a real mixed bag. In total this category amounts to $17.8 million. Some of it is revenue that is available to the town for its operations, while other revenue is a ‘pass through’ for regional expenses. Medical services most notably fall under this category of pass through revenue. The same is true for the Provincial Offenses Court, revenue is offset by expenses or transfers. This whole area of non-taxation revenue is complex and will be the subject of separate posts looking at individual revenue components and their associated expenses. The big picture is presented in the chart below. Much of the revenue, almost 60% comes from federal and provincial sources.

So there is a quick look of where the money comes from to operate Parry Sound. In the next post I’ll present a similar top line summary of where the money goes. In subsequent posts I’ll tear apart each of these entries and look at them in much more detail.