Councillors in South Bruce are still looking at the numbers in various departments when it comes to the 2010 budget.
Deputy Mayor Carl Zettel says they have to find 170 thousand dollars in savings or in revenue from somewhere – because of a reduction in Ontario Municipal Partnership Funding, making it a challenging budget year.
Zettel says that alone equates to an eight per cent tax hike to keep up the same level of service from last year.
He says they aren’t predicting where they’ll be at the end of the day though.
Zettel says this year’s main challenge will pertain to roads – as they may have to make cuts elsewhere to make up for cutting from that budget last year.
He says they do have about two hundred thousand dollars in reserves, but that some of that is needed to cover a third of a 21 million dollar sewer project for Teeswater and Formosa in the works.
The next round of talks is Tuesday March 16 at 6 PM.