Councillors in South Bruce will soon be going through their yearly round of budget talks.
Mayor Bill Goetz says the good news is that there will be a little bit of money left over from the 2009 budget.
He notes there is a small surplus of around 200 thousand dollars from last year.
Goetz says that should give them some leeway to hopefully keep the tax rate at a reasonable level and maybe even put some money into reserves for the future.
However, South Bruce is losing 170 thousand dollars in Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding.
That means a seven per cent increase to the tax rate would be required in order to maintain services.
Goetz says cutting services is not something council wants to do, but at this point, he wouldn’t rule it out.
South Bruce has public budget meetings scheduled for next Tuesday February 2nd at 6 PM and for February 18th at 7 PM.
Both sessions take place at the municipal office in Teeswater.