Photo By Claire McCormack
The Municipality of West Grey is making headway on its 2023 budget, which includes a proposed tax rate increase of 6.5 per cent.
Director of Finance and Treasurer Kerri Mighton says this increase will cost residents an additional $78.50 for homes assessed at per $100,000.
Mayor Kevin Eccles says council met Feb. 14 for their second budget discussion, going into further detail on what is included.
Eccles adds they are looking at a total budget of about $32 million, with over $15 million allocated for the capital budget.
He says some of the larger capital projects include a new police station and a number of road projects in Ayton, Durham and Normanby.
Eccles says he feels West Grey’s budget process is not that different from any other municipality in the region.
“We are very similar to a lot of other municipalities in the struggle with coming out of Covid and getting through the pandemic and how that changed the expenditures and some of the funding that the municipalities get, but also with the economics they way they are and the inflationary rate, and how much municipalities are affected certainly with fuel prices and construction costs escalating, it has been a struggle for us to get the budget under wraps and be able to deliver the services that are required of us,” says Eccles.
Eccles says they will be returning to council Feb. 21 to confirm budget numbers before opening up to a public meeting on March 7, and possibly look at a recommendation to pass the by-law at the same meeting.