City council will have an Operating Budget Review Committee for the 2024 budget.
During Monday's meeting, council voted in favour of moving the recommendation and that the committee be incorporated into the 2024 budget.
The recommendation that was approved will also see administration bringing forward a budget for 2024 that provides options to mitigate a potential property tax levy increases through department reduction options that total five per cent of the prior year's net operating budget.
Fred Francis, ward 1 councillor, was the individual to bring the motion forward.
He says council will have the chance to talk to administration about the budget.
"Council once again will have an Operating Budget Review Committee that will try to find savings and all of the councillors will have their say and get to ask administration why something is put forward, why something isn't put forward. And we get to have that deliberation, that debate, prior to the final budget day."
He says at the end of the day, he just wants to save Windsorites money.
"All I'm trying to do is ensure we have those discussions, this is the amount of tax dollars we have, are we spending it on the priorities that the people are telling us they want it spent on? And at the end of the day, can we save people some money? So, if we can save people some money and then spend the money that they are giving us on the priorities they want it spent on, I think that's a win-win."
Jim Morrison, ward 10 councillor, voted against the committee for 2024, and says he doesn't like the process.
"We spent four and a half days, we didn't come up with hardly anything. And then when we had the actual budget meeting, there was already people who had things ready to go to cut and make changes and everything, but I never heard it during those four and a half days. So, I don't like that process."
Francis says it's not true that the committee didn't help save residents money.
"Finding about $2-million in savings, that's nothing to sneeze at, $2.3-million, $2-point-whatever-million is a lot of money. And especially when we're talking taxpayer money, saying that committee did nothing when it found north of $2-million is quite frankly silly to me because that's just not factually true."
Renaldo Agostino, ward 3 councillor, says he's for the Operating Budget Review Committee working together again for next year.
"I think this is a good thing, I think we need to continue it, and I think we need to dig in a little bit deeper because I think we did learn a lot, I think we did find solutions and I think we could find more if we work harder at it."
Administration will also develop the 2024 10-year Capital Budget based on current funding level projections.
Now that the recommendation has been passed, development for the operating and capital budget will start as early as today.