LONDON, Ont. -- As a budget crunch threatens to boost tax bills 4 per cent next year, Mayor Ed Holder tells CTV News he'll push municipally-funded boards and commissions to cut costs in order to meet council’s annual tax target, “That is absolutely my plan. “

A staff report projects a 3.2 per cent average annual tax increase in the upcoming multi-year budget.

That represents about $96 more each year on the tax bill of an average London home valued at $241,000. The estimated tax increase includes a 4 per cent jump next year.

The report points to a long list of city-funded boards and commissions requesting more money than council has allocated for them.

Holder adds, “Administration has been really clear to our boards and commissions that they have to be attentive, some have really gotten the message, some haven't yet."

Lowering the average annual tax increase back to council's 2.7 per cent target will require finding about $3.2 million in each year of the four-year budget.

Eleven of the 14 municipally-funded boards and commissions have submitted budget requests over the amount allocated by city hall.

Councillor Elizabeth Peloza sits on some of those boards and suggests there is a lot more that needs to be considered.

“For the four boards that I serve on, each one has different provincial things happening within them.“

Peloza says provincial downloading announcements have changed core programming, reduced funding and created uncertainty.

All of those factors contribute to a budget bind for boards and commissions, “So it’s making the budgets very hard to nail down and inflexible when we are actually trying to still deliver the same level of service to our constituents.”

City staff suggest asking boards and commissions to bring forward a list of potential cuts for consideration during budget deliberations in February.

Holder has called a special meeting to discuss next steps on Tuesday

“We all have to live within our means. We are not saying no to certain increases, but to be able to get to the point where we acknowledge there is only one taxpayer.”

Peloza believes council needs to consider service impacts carefully, “I think it’s important to look at the outcomes we want - 2.7 could it be 2.8, 2.9? What can we actually do to have the most benefit to Londoners?”