Budget season continues across Essex County, this time in Leamington.
The 2019 Draft Budget calls for a 1.8% property tax increase, that works out to around $37 more this year on $175,000 home.
Mayor Hilda MacDonald tells AM800 News the budget is never a "rubber stamp" item — she expects talks to go on for a few days.
"Staff know that coming into it all of us question and expect solid answers, which we get. It will be a matter of deciding whether or not we want to go with the recommended increase, or if we want to change it," she says. "It will be a heavy discussion."
MacDonald says a reasonable tax increase is necessary to secure government funding.
"It's a bit of a dance because you want to make sure that you're covering your costs and you're not impacting your residents too much and yet you want to put yourself in a prime position for funding," says MacDonald.
It's the 13-year she's gone over a budget for the town, and she says every year administration gets more efficient.
She doesn't see any huge changes to this year's draft.
"Now they know going in what our expectations are and they try and bring it as close to that expectation as they can. There isn't the juggling and maneuvering there used to be," MacDonald says. "I know everyone likes to bring it down a little bit, but it's really very reasonable at 1.8%."
More than 30 grant requests appear in this year's budget totalling $187,000, a 16% increase from 2018.
Talks begin Tuesday afternoon at town hall.
— with files from AM800's Rob Hindi.