Chatham-Kent council couldn’t quite get to the finish line during the second night of budget deliberations.
Council came up with a number of reductions and appeared to have done most of their heavy lifting, getting the 2024 tax impact to 5.76 per cent.
Two motions made found $600,000 in savings to reduce the tax impact.
Mayor Darrin Canniff made a successful motion to take $500,000 of the projected 2023 gross police surplus and return it to the municipality to lower the 2024 tax increase. Canniff’s motion will have to be approved by the police services board as well.
Other savings also included a successful motion by Councillor Anthony Ceccacci to take $400,000 of the proposed 2023 surplus and put it towards the proposed tax increase at $100,000 per year for the next four years of the multi-year budget.
A vote to adopt the budget failed by an 8-9 vote, meaning council will meet again on Thursday night to continue to look for ways to save taxpayer’s money.
Councillor Melissa Harrigan moved the unsuccessful motion at the end of the four-and-a-half-hour budget deliberation meeting to adopt the budget.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said it was a very prudent budget, noting that the 5.76 tax impact was lower than what many municipalities across Ontario are forecasting.
“When you summarize this budget…to simplify, this budget is four percent inflation and 1.5 percent infrastructure, those are the two things we are facing.”
In favour of accepting the budget were Mayor Darrin Canniff, and Councillors Lauren Anderson, Brock McGregor, Carmen McGregor, Amy Finn, Aaron Hall, Melissa Harrigan and Jamie McGrail.
Councillors who voted to take another look at the budget tonight included councillors Brian Doyle, Michael Bondy, Rhonda Jubenville, John Wright, Alyson Storey, Anthony Ceccacci, Conor Allin, Trevor Thompson and Steve Pinsonneault.
The 2024 proposed budget started with a tax increase of 6.57 per cent heading into the first night of budget deliberations and was at 6.03 per cent heading into the second night.
The third night of budget deliberations will take place at the Civic Centre tonight, starting at 6pm. The talks will also be streamed live online through the YourTV Chatham-Kent YouTube channel and the municipality’s Facebook page.