The 2020 city budget has been finalized as council last night approved an overall municipal property tax levy increase of 3.63%
A year ago, the overall increase was 3.54%.
Of the overall budget increase for next year, 2.16 % of that rate is attributed to funding for levy boards and outside agencies—that rate is up from what had been presented in the preliminary municipal budget mostly due to the downloading of costs for Algoma Public Health from the province—that works out to an extra cost of over 193-thousand dollars for the City.
What exactly the overall rate will mean for the individual tax classifications including the residential rate won’t be known until the end of March or April.
There were a number of supplemental items that were included in the budget including another 50-thousand dollars to support our community’s arts and culture and heritage.
A request for an extra 500-thousand dollars for Public Works for miscellaneous road construction which involves minor road repair such as resurfacing and bridge and aqueduct inspections was turned down.