Collier | No surprise property tax won't rise before election

For the sixth consecutive year, there won't be a property tax increase in Windsor.

Mayor Eddie Francis released details of the 2014 budget last week.

The fact council held the line on taxes didn't surprise CBC Windsor's municipal affairs columnist Cheryl Collier.

"It is a pre-election budget. You’ve been holding the line for the last five years, so why not go for one more?" she said. "I think they would have had hard time selling themselves as a council in 2014 if they had done anything different."

Residents go to the polls in late 2014.

Budget details were also released earlier than in many previous years.

"It’s definitely an early budget," Collier said. "One of the reasons I see they’re doing this is because of the election coming up."

Collier said an early budget also has potential to create problems.

"There are a lot of assumptions in this budget," Collier said.

She noted 2014 provincial funding and fuel costs, for example, are difficult to predict this early.

Budgets generally tend to be put together early in the same year, so in March 2014 for the year 2014.

"It raises a lot more uncertainty in the budget numbers and that could come back to bite them," Collier said.

Collier said several years of no tax increases starts to create an expectation that no tax increase is the norm.

"But, even if we read the budget documents … the city administration say it’s very difficult to sustain over time," Collier said. "Investments in your city, at some point in time, must be made."