It’s looks like the City of Kenora will have a tax increase of close to 9 percent.
That was the amount council settled on in the final budget meeting Tuesday morning.
Councillor Graham Chaze says even if they waited bills to come in from the Homes for the Aged, the Health Unit and the Kenora District Services Board, not much would change.
“Any increase imposed by the external agencies is out of our control,”
“It’s not like we can negotiate those and I’m not hearing solutions to reduce what our operating is right now. The (KMTS) Prosperity Trust Fund report would be nice to have but something we can use for future deliberations or future tools.”
Some councillors had indicated they wanted to see if the city could dip into the KMTS Prosperity Trust Fund to help offset the tax increase even more.
Currently the city takes $1.1 million from the Trust to offset taxes.
Part of the effort to defray any tax increase is increasing fees and services in the city.
Council says the hike will amount to almost $170,000 extra into the city coffers.
CAO for the city Kyle Attanasio says those increases will be reflected when the budget is presented at their next meeting in December.
“The forecasted amounts that we’ve shown you for tariffs and fees would be contingent on 12 months. So, what we’re going to do at the December Committee of the Whole meeting is we’re going to bring forward those changes in the Tariff and Fees By-Law, so we can get those changes implemented on January 1st, just so we do maximize revenue.”
Other line items in the budget are an increase for non-union staff of a 1.5 percent pay raise.
The city has also benefitted by the policing rebate announced by the province last week.
It amounts to $1.7 million or 5.5 percent of the city’s budget.
(File photo)
