A public open house was held in Wallaceburg on Wednesday to discuss the 2018 municipal budget.
Chatham Coun. Derek Robertson, chair of the budget committee, told the Sydenham Current this year’s budget is not a whole lot more unique than the last one.
“There is going to be a heavy focus on infrastructure,” he said.
“I think the key themes that people ought to understand is over the course of this term we have paid down a significant amount of the debt. We focus on infrastructure, we spend more money on infrastructure today than we ever have and we’ve had lower proposed and actualized tax increases over the last four years than any other four-year term in recent memory.”
Chatham-Kent staff is recommending a 2.27% tax increase this year in their 2018 draft budget.
Robertson said he would like to have more people in attendance at the budget open houses.
A total of five people from the community, not including Municipal staff and the media, attended the Wallaceburg Municipal Building for the meeting on Wednesday.
“It allows you to get as good of a thumb on the pulse as you can,” Robertson said about the value of the meetings.
“Obviously, I would like to see more people attend. The more information the better. I think it helps us form our opinions.”
Robertson said they had a vibrant meeting in Ridgetown on Tuesday evening.
“We had some pretty good questions here (on Wednesday) too,” he said.
“It seems logical to me that in some cases people just need information so that they understand the process and in other cases we’ve had some good voices in regards to infrastructure and how we should be spending our money.”
North Kent Coun. Joe Faas told the Sydenham Current at the meeting he’s happy with what staff has produced in the draft budget.
“It’s a good budget and it’s a good one for everybody,” Faas said.
“I don’t think there is anything that really stands out for any specific area. They’ve come with a fairly responsible budget because it addresses a lot of the issues that we have with infrastructure and trying to upgrade it and to find the funding to beef it up to get towards 100% funding. I think it’s positive… and I’m optimistic the concerns for all the wards will be addressed.”
Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley said at the meeting this proposed budget is a good place to start.
“We still have to go through, you never know what is going to be thrown on the table and who is going to bring up what,” he said.
“I think it is pretty obvious that this council has done what they could to keep things fiscally responsible, paid down debt, we’ve kept the tax increase over the years as low as we can. You can always do better, but at least we’ve got things going in the right direction.”
The proposed 2.27% increase, which is not the final number, works out to an additional $64 annually on a house assessed at $165,500.
Last year, council approved a 1.96% tax increase.
The budget committee deliberations are scheduled for January 30, 31 and February 1, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Civic Centre in Chatham.
Enough with the tax increases already! Between provincial and federal we really don’t need another hand deeper in our pocket. Learn to work with what you are already taking from us. CK is one of the highest taxed counties around. Further more it seems that anytime the money is spent, it is used at the benefit of Chatham more so than the smaller communities that were unwillingly dragged into a Municipality in the first place.