Windsor councillors trim proposed tax increase to 4.59%

Property owners in Windsor are looking at a tax increase in 2023 — but a slightly smaller one than originally proposed — after a committee of councillors took a deep dive into a draft of budget and found some savings.

After meeting for four days, council's budget committee unanimously agreed to $2.8 million dollars in cuts they say won't affect services.

If those changes are passed, there would still be a tax increase of 4.59 per cent. That's down, however, from the 5.23 per cent tax hike contained in the earlier draft budget prepared by city staff as part of this year's budget process.

Ward 1 Coun. Fred Francis, the budget committee chair, says they did it by trimming down requests in individual corporate accounts, for example maintenance.

"So they might have been asking for $100,000," he said. "Instead of $100,000, we would give $50,000. In some cases they're asking for $50,000, we provided $25,000. So we were able to find those reductions in those accounts for maintenance moving forward that never existed before or were additions to current maintenance accounts."

The committee was also able to cut a budget request of about $900,000 from Transit Windsor in half by filing the gap with money from the provincial gas tax.

"So the entire $900,000 and change doesn't hit the tax levy, only half of it does, and the rest hits the gas tax with the hope that in future years ridership increases," Francis said.

Rodent control fees not moving ahead

The committee was also able to avoid instituting a charge for the rodent control program, a measure that was recommended by city staff in the draft budget.

Another idea contained in that draft was extending the hours for paid parking past 6 p.m..

The committee decided against that — a decision that made the owners of Blanche Nightclub on Ouellette Avenue happy.

"It would have been detrimental if they were making them pay because we have a lot of people that you see that come after six, and a lot of people that come from outside of Windsor that they're very happy and that they don't have to pay," said administrator Dawne Martens.

Council was also able to dip into reserves to cover a modest increase in the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit budget.

But about 1.5 per cent of the increase in expenses this year comes from agencies, boards and committees, so council will be looking for more savings from them.

"The feeling from the committee was it is unfair to ask only city administration and city departments to bear the brunt of reductions and not carry that same expectation over to the ABCs, the agencies, boards and committees," Francis said.

The mayor will now have a look at ways to trim and will be talking with councillors for ideas on how to do that.

City council still has to debate and approve a finalized budget. That will happen on April 3.