Leamington Council holds line on taxes

By Mark Ribble

LEAMINGTON — If you are a taxpayer in the Municipality of Leamington, you’ll be happy to know that council has voted in favour of a zero per cent tax increase for the upcoming budget.

With a worldwide pandemic weighing heavily on their minds, the members of council and administration found a way to not increase property taxes.

According to Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, council had asked administration to find as much as they could to keep the increase at two per cent or below.

Administration did just that, coming in with a two per cent increase during the first day of budget deliberations last week. “The budget itself, was excellent,” said MacDonald. That budget included an increase of about $800,000. Council then asked if administration thought they could make further cuts to get it closer to zero.

After several hours of working on it, administration came back with a budget matching the zero per cent increase.

HILDA MACDONALD

“It was really a cooperative effort,” said MacDonald. “There was mutual respect from everyone at the table.”

She credits the finance department for crunching the numbers and making it happen.

“They did a wonderful job,” she said.

Some of the capital projects still on track for 2021 include road resurfacing projects, transit bus replacement, renewal of the Leamington Arts Centre, work at municipal parks and new traffic signals at Sherk/Ellison and Seacliff/Cherry Lane. The cuts were made in a couple of areas: the sewer levy and tourism.

On the tourism side, with COVID-19 still rising across the region, it was decided to remove the budget for the Mill St. Markets and concerts at Seacliff Park. The still unknown status of summer events made those the easiest to eliminate.

“We will revisit those when we get past the pandemic,” said MacDonald.

Council felt it was more important to support businesses and residents in the area by not asking for more tax dollars in such a stressful time.

“This is the only way we can help the businesses and taxpayers without going against the provincial framework,” she said. In the end, council passed the non-increase. “It was the right thing to do,” said MacDonald.