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The Municipality of Lakeshore’s draft budget calls for a 7.66 per cent tax increase in 2025.
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The draft budget will be presented to council on Dec. 10. It contains total spending of $66.1 million, up $5.4 million from 2024.
Draft budgets are typically a starting point for deliberations and actual increases are usually much lower. Last year’s tax increase for Lakeshore was 2.97 per cent.
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Inflationary pressure is one factor affecting Lakeshore’s spending. On top of that, property tax reassessment by the Municipal Property Assessment Corp. has been delayed, leaving Lakeshore to depend on 2016 valuations, even on development built since then.
“This delay limits growth, with assessment growth currently at approximately 1.22 per cent, despite new housing developments, which are being assessed at 2016 construction values,” Lakeshore’s draft budget says.
Assessment growth is expected provide an additional $500,000 in revenue in 2025.
Key objectives for Lakeshore are building and managing municipal infrastructure, modernizing and enhancing the “municipal function” and modernizing resident-centred services.
Earlier this year, a service delivery review by consultant StrategyCorp concluded the municipality’s infrastructure and workforce faced significant challenges, possibly discouraging developers from pursuing projects.
The immediate risks identified in the report included infrastructure and workforce challenges, team dynamics and process integration issues, a lack of long-term strategic vision, and challenges related to planning.
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Mayor Tracey Bailey said at the time that council “identified and prioritized service improvements for customers and residents.”
Also of concern at the time of the report was that Lakeshore did not have a permanent chief administrative officer in place after Truper McBride left in June to take a similar position with the Township of West Lincoln. Lakeshore recently announced that Tyson Cragg will assume the responsibilities on Jan. 14.
Cragg had been the executive director of Transit Windsor since 2020.
Water, wastewater and the fire services were key focuses this year, the draft budget document said.
The draft budget released by Lakeshore projects a Wastewater increase of nine per cent and water rate increase at four per cent next year.
As part of the budget, Lakeshore plans to spend $36.3 million on capital projects next year, unless some spending is pared down or eliminated during budget deliberations.
Key projects include the Comber and Rochester watermain replacements, Stoney Point Park construction, Upgrades to the County Road 22 sanitary trunk, bridge rehabilitation, asphalt replacement and the municipality’s fire truck replacement program.
Average Lakeshore taxpayers paid in 3.02 per cent of their income towards municipal taxes in 2024, which Lakeshore says is the lowest among the county’s municipalities, according to the draft budget.
Budget deliberations are set for Jan. 23 and 24.
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