Residents in Grey County may not see a large tax hike.
The County has started budget deliberations and each County Councillor received a large binder that is the 2009 draft budget at Tuesday’s Council meeting.
Councillor and Finance and Personnel Committee Chair Bob Pringle says the way the budget is as of now, the County is looking at a tax hike of 1.69 percent.
Council suggested staff to aim at a 2 to 2.5 percent increase for 2009.
Pringle — the Deputy Mayor of Chatsworth — suggests there maybe further reductions that will see the rate increase go down to 1.5 percent.
He says if there needs to be further cutting, it needs to begin now.
Pringle says a change of around 80 thousand dollars will represent about .2 percent in the rate.
He says they are small changes but it will add up to big ones when they accumulate.
Part of the budget discussion will include wages to both union and non-union staff and the CAO.
Pringle says there were issues that the Finance and Personnel Committee struggled with including negotiations with the union representing Social Service employees.
He says there were suggestions being made about making changes to the offer to staff but in the end everything remained status quo.
Pringle was asked about the committee rejecting a motion to an across the board salary cut for Councillors of a thousand dollars each.
He would only say that you would have to go with the way the committee voted on that motion.
Council will meet on the budget next Tuesday at 10 AM.