The proposed 2026 budget has officially been tabled in Tecumseh.
Mayor Gary McNamara presented the budget on Tuesday afternoon for the first time under the new Strong Mayor Powers legislation.
The budget proposes an $872,000 levy increase, which translates to a 2.85 per cent increase.
Once the County and Education rates are factored in, residents will see an overall increase of 2.36 per cent. This increase works out to approximately $103 more annually on a property assessed at $275,000 - with $69 of that going to municipal property taxes.
$432,000 of the budget is for contractual increases for existing staff, with an additional $174,000 for service level enhancements such as an additional bylaw officer, a Public Works operator, a People & Culture Coordinator, among others.
The town was facing a large OPP contract increase of $460,000, similar to other municipalities, but $375,000 of that was offset from reserves, bringing the budget total to approximately $85,000.
The 2026 capital budget proposes expenditures of $58-million, towards projects such as the Southfield Park splash pad and trail, and the Lakewood Park washroom and water feature.
Mayor Gary McNamara says the town is in a very comfortable position to keep taxes low.
"I feel very confident that administration will be able to help deliver and maintain the level of services that our citizens have been accustomed to, and enjoyed over the course of the years. And with that, I feel very confident that this budget is going to pass in February."
He says of the money owed for the OPP contract, $175,000 of the reserves used were from the 2025 OPP surplus from the discounted fee from last year.
"We did come in with a budget surplus, so we have balanced that. And what we did is we took half of that grant money, put that aside in reserves this year anticipating that there would be an extra charge going into 2026. So, that really helped soften the blow in terms of the increase."
McNamara says residents will see construction in 2026 as they work towards increasing housing supply.
"As we all know, there's a housing issue, not only in our community but in the region, and this budget here helps in terms of opening up a lot of green fields, new lands, and with that we have to put infrastructure in the ground, and we've got to build new roads, and we've got to expand other roads to make sure that we can handle that growth over the course of the year."
The budget also proposes a three per cent increase to water rates, and a five per cent increase to wastewater rates.
Council will meet on Feb. 12 to propose any amendments to the budget, if no amendments are proposed, the budget will be deemed adopted.
The full budget document will be available on the Town's website and Engage Tecumseh site on Friday, January 16.