City Hall - Staff Photo
The Municipal Tax Levy remains below the starting point of 2% heading into February.
Wednesday’s third session of budget deliberations saw the levy increase to 1.98% before growth and 1.75% after growth thanks to a few increases.
In the six hour session, the elected body earmarked $67,900 to freeze transit fares for the remainder of 2021 and added $15,000 each towards the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy, Age Friendly Thunder Bay and Poverty Free Thunder Bay.
Council also approved a recommended one-time cut from administration of $12,000 for outside boards but soundly defeated three other suggestions for reductions totaling $147,200. They included $109,000 towards the CEDC Reserve Fund, $100,000 for the Clean Green and Beautiful Reserve Fund and a total of $38,200 for CEDC cleaning related expenses.
The Municipal Tax Levy before and after growth remains below two per cent. Thursday's session, which lasted just over two hours, saw the levy remain u.
Finding savings is the focus of council as they strive to shrink the municipal tax levy.
The first budget review session Tuesday lasted five plus hours and covered corporate services, long term care as well as infrastructure and operations.
Council rejected funding a number of measures, including duct cleaning at Victoriaville Mall, adding another crossover and a property acquisition for the Northwest Arterial. When it comes to an environmental assessment for the Arterial, Mayor Bill Mauro suggested a final decision on that could happen next week following a meeting with the Ministry of Transportation.
After all was said and done, the elected body was able to cut $443,300 which helped get the increase to the municipal tax levy down to 1.93% before growth and 1.69% after growth.