For the seventh straight year, Windsor's not taking any more money out of taxpayers' pockets.
Council approved its budget at just over $319-million with a 0% tax levy, Monday night.
Mayor Drew Dilkens, who sat on council through the previous six budgets, says it gets harder each year. "With an example of Devon Dr. The road's in poor condition and we have people starting to come to us saying, 'this road's in really bad condition. It should be repaired.' But we know the cost is $3-million to do that. So we start hearing these things. We know the pressure's out there."
Dilkens explains there were $25-million in budget pressures which needed to be addressed this year, due to increasing salaries and insurance premiums among other things. Increasing revenue, government grants and cutting a few things from the budget helped council come to 0%.
The mayor admits that a 1% tax increase is a very real possibility next year, so that the city can start generating more revenue for capital projects.
