Chatsworth Council is signing off on what’s been a very challenging budget.
Mayor Howard Greig says they’ve given the 7.3 million dollar document final approval.
Greig says the process was extremely difficult this year because Chatsworth suffered a major hit.
They lost 273 thousand dollars in Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding and another 400 thousand from the farm tax rebate program.
Greig says the shortfall translated to 12.7 per cent of their budget.
He says the province’s new funding formula is seriously flawed and “it’s almost criminal what they’re doing”.
In order to keep the tax rate down Greig says they’ve basically had to cut out their roads budget and no major projects will go forward this year.
He says there will only be some resurfacing work in order to try and at least maintain the roads.
Greig says municipal taxes are going up 6.89 per cent, but when you factor in the county and education levies the increase works out to 3.64 per cent.
That will mean about 67 dollars extra to the average homeowner.
Greig says no one likes a tax hike but council did the best they could considering the funding cuts facing Chatsworth this year.