Tecumseh council gets proposed tax increase down to 3.86%

Tecumseh council has managed to shave off some of the proposed tax increase its residents are facing, the municipality said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The town said councillors had managed to bring its projected rise of 4.4 per cent down to an increase of 3.86 per cent.

"2023 is a difficult budget year," said Mayor Gary McNamara in the news release. 

"While balancing the rise of inflation and market pressures, we preserved our contributions to capital and will continue to provide the services our residents have come to expect and rely on.

The 2023 draft budget for LaSalle has also been released and if approved would bring a tax increase, following the lead of many other municipalities in the region.

The increase will bring in $2.9 million more than last year's budget, with a proposed 5.25 per cent rise in taxes.

"Although the rate of inflation has significantly increased in 2022, the town is still on pace to achieve its strategic goals with a responsible tax rate increase below the rate of inflation," said Dale Langlois, the municipality's director of finance, in a news release.

"Our goal is to recognize the current inflationary environment while maintaining current levels of service and continuing to fund the town's strategic goals." 

The increases include $571,000 for policing costs, $1.3 million for service level changes including funding for master plans and investments in information technology and $2.8 million for inflationary changes like wages and benefits, insurance, fuel and garbage collection.

In its news release, the town said that because the province has postponed the municipal property assessment scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2021, property valuations will continue to be based on Jan. 1, 2016 values.

"This means that nearly all properties in the town will have an identical assessment value in 2023 as they did in 2020, 2021 and 2022," the release said.

"The vast majority of properties will experience a municipal property tax increase of 5.25 per cent, lower than the current rate of inflation."

The town will be hosting an open house on Jan. 25 from 6-8 p.m. at the Vollmer Centre and all are welcome to attend.

Rising taxes across the region

LaSalle and Tecumseh are far from the only municipalities to be looking at raising taxes in the region, according to draft budgets released ahead of formal council debates on the matter.

Windsor residents are looking at a proposed increase of 5.2 per cent, Essex County has a proposed 4.76 per cent increase and Lakeshore's draft budget has a 4.7 per cent jump.

In Lakeshore, the municipality is also using $1.02 million from the tax stabilization reserve "to mitigate the full impact of inflation on residents," the budget said.

Kingsville's draft budget said the average annual increase for households will amount to about $90.

Every budget mentions the impact of inflation as a driving cause for the increases.