Amherstburg residents could be looking at a 4.55% tax hike come 2020.
Council received the draft budget Monday night which includes saving for the town's $13.5-million portion of the $50-million 'Amherstburg Great Spaces, Great Places' project unveiled last week.
CAO John Miceli says progress doesn't come for free as the plan accounts for about 2% of the total tax increase.
He says one major plus for this budget is, for the first time ever, the town will be establishing a reserve fund.
"You put money away for that rainy day to be used to fund municipal expenditures. That's never been clearly identified in any of our budgets. We have developed a reserve fund budget, the first ever for the town, and we believe that that is going to improve our accountability and transparency to the ratepayers."
Miceli says the entire $11.8-million capital works budget, including $3.9-million for road work, will be financed without adding any additional debt.
"In 2014, we had zero dollars from taxation for our capital program. We need to be able to fund our capital expenditures and this year's plan we have no new debt. That's monumental. It's huge because it wasn't done in the past."
Amherstburg CAO John Miceli (right) and treasurer Justin Rousseau (left) discuss the town's 2020 draft budget on November 4, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
The proposed 4.55% tax hike amounts to $114 on a home valued at $250,000.
Miceli says the town is on the path to financial stability as it continues to chip away at debt which peaked at $44.7-million in 2014.
"Since 2014, we've reduced our debt by $10.2-million or 23.5%. That's a huge reduction in our debt. We moved to a pay-as-you-go strategy. So we're starting to see the benefits of our disciplined pay-as-you-go program."
Last year, Amherstburg residents saw a 1.82% increase on their tax bill.
The town will host a public input session Saturday, November 9 at the Libro Centre at 1pm.
Council will then start budget deliberations the week of November 18 with a goal of approving the final budget in early December.