Chatham-Kent council has approved its 2020 budget, which comes with a 2.97% tax increase.
After moving around some money from reserves, deferring some projects, and making some decisions on what to spend money on, council approved the budget with a 11-6 vote on the third day of deliberations Thursday night in Chatham.
Budget chair Brock McGregor says sometimes people put too much focus on the numbers.
“What we really need to think about is long-term what that really means for the community,” McGregor says. “We’re aware that some of these pressures are going to continue, we need to look at ways to continue to drive assessment growth, continue to look at efficiencies year-over-year to make sure we can deliver reasonable budgets as we go forward.”
Among the highlights at Thursday’s deliberations included using $2,260,000 from the projected 2019 surplus to fund one-time municipal roadside drainage assessments.
Council also approved a $60,000 crosswalk in Ridgetown, $300,000 for cemetery road improvements and a $200,000 pilot sand bag program.
The budget includes a $13.4 capital budget, which features an extra one-time $6.7 million from the federal gas-tax fund, which will help the municipality pay for some much needed road projects.
The proposed budget presented to council earlier this month originally featured a 4.99% increase.
On the average home assessed at $171,000, this year’s hike will mean an extra $86 a year in property taxes.