However Don Shropshire, the municipality’s CAO, says he doesn’t see it as a divide, but rather a careful balancing act of priorities.
“Ultimately we have one tax base and one group of taxpayers and we have to figure out a way to actually meet those challenges together,” Shropshire says. “That’s what council members are supposed to do, councils represent those different constituent groups and have to balance off how some of those needs are going to be met.”
Municipal officials will have to find that balance over the next few weeks as they work on finalizing Chatham-Kent’s budget for the year.
The 2017 draft budget will be presented to council tonight.
A series of public meetings will be held next week to gather input from local residents, and budget deliberations begin in earnest on February first.