A local Councillor is feeling optimistic heading into this year’s municipal budget deliberations. 
Wallaceburg’s Jeff Wesley says the budget committee has a good starting point with a proposed tax hike of 1.96%.
“I think, quite frankly, the last couple of years have been pretty good for Wallaceburg and the projects we’ve gotten done,” Wesley says. “Carmen (McGregor) and I, we’re going to go in there, look and see what they’ve got in the programs set out for Wallaceburg, and make sure they all stay in there.”
Meantime committee chair Derek Robertson expects it to be a fairly easy process this year.
“What we have is a budget that is far more responsible than we’ve been able to deliver in draft format in many past years,” Robertson says, “which, I think, eases the burden on the budget committee to get through those really difficult decisions about closing arenas and libraries, which we are not engaging in this year.”
Four dates have been set aside for deliberations this year, including today and tomorrow, along with February 7th and 8th.
