Amherstburg Town Council will start its 2017 budget deliberations tonight.
Deliberations were postponed last year due to a death in the family for town councilor Diane Pouget.
Mayor Aldo DiCarlo says the budget calls for a 1.99 per cent tax increase.
He says council is always looking for savings to reduce the tax burden on rate payers.
"I try to remember the simple things that the residents brought up last election," says DiCarlo. "That is to improve our financial situation and reduce our long-term debt. The other thing that makes it hard is people do like their amenities."
He says in the past two years, town council and administration have worked hard to get finances back on track.
"I should be pretty clear that we are continuing to pay down our debt and moving into a pay-as-you-go situation," says DiCarlo. "This is something we've been able to do and if all things go well, we should be able to continue to do that. Council has already made some big moves in the last couple budgets to put us into that situation."
He says he has heard nothing but good things from residents on how they fixed the financial situation.
"Most residents are actually happy and impressed with how we've turned it around in such a short period of time," says DiCarlo. "Not like we are out of the woods yet by any means, but in a couple short years we have got money in the bank and everything is accounted for. We continue to find saving and continue to invest in the municipality."
Budget deliberations will start at 5 p.m. tonight, tomorrow and, if needed, Wednesday at Amherstburg's town hall.