Chatham-Kent Council has one night of budget deliberations in the books, and the proposed tax increase is down to 1.72%. 
Councillor Doug Sulman removed the hiring of two new municipal staff from the budget, reducing the cost to taxpayers by about $144,000.
“Our population is dropping, our assessment has not increased substantially, and I’m opposed to increasing the size of government,” Sulman explains. “I’m not saying that these aren’t good people that might be added, the people who are in the head of the departments certainly want the, but it’s an increase in government and we simply can’t afford it in a population that’s shrinking.”
Sulman says he wants to cut more of these new positions and hopefully save taxpayers $1-million in the process.
Meantime, councillors have given their stamp of approval to the Chatham-Kent Police Service’s $31-million dollar budget, a 1.7% increase over last year.
Budget deliberations continue tonight.
