The tax levy increase has dropped to 2.27% after growth with a couple of cuts at last night’s budget meeting.
Council approved $317,100 in savings from the police and legal services budgets.
For police, the city learned the Ministry of the Solicitor General will provide $152,100 more than was proposed for Court Security and Prisoner Transport. To balance that out, City Councillors are reducing their contribution to the police budget by that amount.
The police budget is a large piece of the city’s budget, initially coming in with a $1.9-million increase. Much of that will go toward upgrades to let residents text 911 under the Next Generation service, and the recommendations of the OIPRD report. The $152,100 cut was the only change approved to the police budget last night.
Hiring a second Deputy City Solicitor and Litigation Law Clerk and cutting two junior legal positions saved $165,000.
The budget talks continue on January 29th, followed by post-budget deputations on February 3rd and a final vote on February 10th.
