Petrolian’s municipal taxes will go up slightly by one per cent.
Council recently approved the 2018 budget, without making any changes.
The town expects to bring in $7.01 million in revenue this year through taxation and grants. It will spend about $5.137 million on the day-to-day operations of the town
The proposed increase would see the municipal taxes on a home assessed at $100,000 go up about $10 in 2018. The Sarnia Lambton Real Estate Board says the average home price is now $263,000 – making the increase about $26.
About $1.41 million of that will go to the administration of town. Public works will spend $1.247 million on salaries, roads, winter control, waste collection and street lights.
The other big ticket item is policing. The town will pay an estimated $1.003 million to the OPP for policing services in 2018. The budget also includes about $68,000 to deal with the increases to the minimum wage.
A total of $2.365 million is budgeted for wages and benefits in 2018 – 41.7 per cent of the entire budget. That’s up $141,078 from 2017’s estimates.
Councillors wages will also go up at the same rate as staff – 1.75 per cent in 2018 according to the treasurer.
The town plans to spend $1.6 million on capital