4.25 per cent tax levy increase approved for the Town of Tecumseh

Tecumseh residents will have to dig a little bit deeper this year. 

Tecumseh council completed the budget deliberations for 2024 on Tuesday evening, with a tax levy increase of 4.25 per cent. 

This increase translates into an approximate $155 annual increase for the average residential property assessed at $250,000.

Council began deliberations with a draft municipal levy increase of 5.55 per cent, and lowered that to 4.55 per cent before approving the budget during the meeting. 

This increase helps manage inflationary pressures, and residents will see several ongoing and new infrastructure projects completed this year including the Lacasse Ball Diamond Upgrades, Cada Library Building Improvements, Lesperance Road Multi-Use Trail between County Road 22 and County Road 42, among other improvements. 

Gary McNamara, mayor of Tecumseh, says the biggest challenge was managing inflationary pressures. 

"Year over year, it's 3.1 per cent right now, but if we look at the transition in 2023 we were dealing at over eight, eight and a half per cent inflationary costs. So although it's 3.1 per cent now, it's still at the elevated price, three per cent higher than what it was midpoint in 2023."

He says there is a lot for residents to look forward to this year. 

"Being able to continue to fund the expansion and improvements at the Cada Library, the beautiful Lacasse Park upgrades to the ball diamond, the Maidstone Recreation Centre's outdoor washrooms that are being built there, and continuing our aggressive infrastructure improvements on our climate change issues."

The mayor adds it was a difficult budget.

"The old saying of 'what are the wants? And what are the needs?', so we basically left it to them is that we need a budget that is 100 per cent based on needs. The wants can come when we have the ability and comfort level to be able to fund them moving forward. This budget fulfills that requirement."

Additional approved projects for 2024 include Lakewood Park All Season Washrooms and an All Ages Water Feature, as well as the floor replacement at the Tecumseh Arena.

This budget consists of 1.5 per cent towards capital and asset lifecycle funding, 1.3 percent in non-controllable expense increases passed on to the municipality such as insurance, benefits, and contracted services like garbage collection, and 1.8 per cent for general operating expenditures. 

The budget by-law will presented to council on January 23 for council's formal adoption.