ST. THOMAS, ONT. -- St. Thomas city council has finalized its 2021 budget, and managed to get it down to a 1.5 per cent tax increase.
"This will be the largest capital project without debt in the history of St. Thomas," says Mayor Joe Preston.
Preston says the directors and city manager began with a low target of 2.4 per cent, but council wanted to go even lower
"Councillor Gary Clarke said 'We have to think of affordability, it's not been a great year,'" Preston explains.
"After Monday night, we asked staff to go through it with a fine-tooth comb and by Tuesday night we got to 1.5 per cent without touching capital growth. We didn't have to touch construction the city needs."
Mayor Joe Preston discusses the city budget in St. Thomas, Ont. on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. (Brent Lale / CTV News)
After finalizing the budget, Preston spoke with London Mayor Ed Holder on the phone. London is hoping to finalize a budget between 3.5 and 3.8 per cent.
Preston says there were no jabs thrown as his friend and former MP colleague.
"Look, there are many things they do better than us too, but we share great ideas too," says Preston. "They are looking at their budget a lot earlier too. We like to finish early, get to capital projects, get to [requests for proposals] so people can bid on them, and we can get started in the spring."
Preston also spoke with newly elected Elgin County Warden Tom Marks, and says many municipalities are trying their hardest to get good work done, but be frugal.
"We had to remind ourselves, don't put a pen through a project," says Preston.
"We're tight-fisted, we can't cut the budget by cutting infrastructure. For the capital budget we knew we had to include the big project on Fairview Avenue and a new firetruck."
He adds there is a lot of growth going on, which will give them a tax budge in 2021.
He says there could be additional expenses due to COVID-19, and they could get more help, but expects the city may have to live by its own means.
