The City of Windsor is launching a new public engagement tool designed to help residents rank their capital priorities for the upcoming budget cycle.
The new tool will help residents of Windsor have a better understanding of how their tax dollars are being spent and for them to provide feedback prior to the budget process.
The 'Budget Balancing Simulation' allows residents to adjust the City of Windsor's 2022 Approved Property Tax Funded Operating Budget by increasing, decreasing, or maintaining spending for various city services including Police, Fire and Emergency, Infrastructure, Payments to School Boards, Capital Projects and Reserves, Human & Health Services, Community Services, General Corporate Support, and Economic Development and Innovation.
And lastly, the 'Tax Receipt Generator' which will allow residents to input their 2022 municipal property taxes and generate an estimated tax receipt that shows a breakdown of how their tax dollars are spent.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Tony Ardovini, the Deputy Treasurer Financial Planning for the City of Windsor, says all three tools will be incredibly helpful for Windsor residents.
He says why 'Prioritize' is helpful to the public.
"Residents can actually pick five priorities and then of those five priorities, rank them. So they go online, pick five that they view as a priority and then they can rank those so they can provide input into our 10-year capital planning."
He says the 'Budget Balancing Simulation' is great for Windsor residents to see how difficult it is to balance a budget.
"It's interesting because they can at the same time try and balance the budget, and they can see how difficult it is, otherwise they'd be raising taxes if they want more services. So, in this case they can increase one service, decrease another service and try to balance and submit that."
He says the 'Tax Receipt Generator' is a great educational tool.
"You put in your estimated property taxes or if you know the exact amount, put the exact amount, and it generates just like a tax receipt when you go to the grocery store. And it tells you what each service you're paying for, and the amount. So how much you're paying for Parks and Rec, for Police Services, for all the different services at the city. And so it's more of an educational tool."
These tools can already be utilized online by the public in preparation for the upcoming 2023 budget process.
The 2022 10-year capital plan invested $1.66-billion in local infrastructure, with $510-million supporting roads, sidewalks, streetlights and more; $454-million for sewer infrastructure and flood prevention; and $167-million in spending on parks, playgrounds, and trails.