Property owners in Meaford are bracing for a potential huge tax hike.
Town council is meeting today to take a second look at department budgets.
At first blush, Council was eyeballing an 18 per cent increase in operating costs for 2009.
However, Mayor Francis Richardson says staff were ordered to go back to the drawing board after they presented the initial numbers last week.
He says the goal is to get the tax increase down to a single digit, of around 8 per cent.
Richardson admits Meaford has had a tough time financially over the last few years, but says they will be short only about 100 thousand dollars at the end of the current fiscal year.
The Meaford Mayor says that’s not bad on a 10 million dollar budget.
He says all programs are under review but he doesn’t want any core services cutback or eliminated.
Today’s budget session begins at 4:30 PM in Meaford council chambers.
Mayor Richardson says they are still a long ways off from setting the final budget.