Chatham-Kent council approves 5.64 per cent tax increase

Chatham Kent municipal offices (CTV Windsor/July 2018)

Chatham-Kent council has approved the 2023 budget with a 5.64 per cent tax increase.

Council held several nights of budget deliberations, bringing the tax hike down from a proposed 6.35 per cent increase.

The vote for approval for 9-8 at Wednesday night’s meeting.

"So Chatham-Kent residents, residential tax-payers can expect for the average household $178 increase for the year

Ward 6 councillor and budget chair Brock McGregor told AM800 News it is one of the higher budgets he's seen in many years.

"In the time that I've been there, and unless we see some significant contributions from the provincial government, we're in for a couple of difficult budget seasons in the upcoming three years as well," said McGregor.

He said infrastructure spending was a major contributor to the increase in spending.

"It was a pretty bare bones budget with some very significant inflationary pressures,” he said. “A large portion of the increase was made up by that inflation on infrastructure spending as well as some general increases to infrastructure spending. Like most communities in Ontario, we're facing a pretty significant infrastructure deficit."