After some lengthy discussion, and a few final cuts, Chatham-Kent councilors passed the budget Thursday night with a 5.53 per cent tax hike for 2024.
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The third night of deliberations featured a debate about the use of reserves to reduce the tax impact in the coming year.
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South Kent Coun. Ryan Doyle offered a motion that would’ve resulted in a tax freeze by removing nearly $10.5 million from transfers to reserves, but it ultimately fell 3-12.
Mayor Darrin Canniff won support for several motions, including applying $25,000 in casino revenue to the base budget; allocating $50,000 related to the base budget vacancy management provision; and reducing the adjustment factor on asset management inflation from one per cent to 0.5 per cent for 2024, resulting in a 4.2 inflationary increase.
The budget passed in a 10-5 vote.
This was the first year in Chatham-Kent’s new four-year budget process. However, councilors were only approving the 2024 budget, with the aim of the multi-year strategy to provide long-term guidance.
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“We knew from the outset that this budget would be largely about inflation and about our commitment to asset management planning,” Chatham Coun. Brock McGregor, budget chair, said after the meeting.
“It ended up at a space that I thought most of us expected. We’ll be I think below what you see in most areas in Ontario this year.”
Voting in favor of the budget was Canniff, along with councilors Conor Allin, Lauren Anderson, Brock McGregor, Anthony Ceccacci, Amy Finn, Aaron Hall, Melissa Harrigan, Jamie McGrail and Trevor Thompson.
Opposed were councilors Michael Bondy, Doyle, Rhonda Jubenville, Alysson Storey and John Wright.
The overall tax increase represents approximately $185 on an average home assessment (2016 value) of $176,200.
This story will be updated.
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