City council has completed a two day gruelling budget deliberation process and by the time all is said and done has approved an average tax increase on the municipal side of your property tax bill in Brandon of 1.17%
At the end of the day, for an average home assessed at $255,000 that would mean a municipal portion of the property tax bill of $1840 compared to $1819 last year.
You might recall that going into deliberations the proposed increase was just under 4%. As part of priorities weighed and decisions made during the process this week council was able to reduce spending by more than $1 million compared to what was proposed to get the overall increase meaningfully below the annual inflation rate that many like to use as a benchmark. You can read more on amendments of significance that helped them reach that point in this notice on the City website.
Focus for the budget process now shifts toward the School Division, which will go through a similar process later in February and into March. Following that you will have an even clearer picture what your property tax bill will look like when it arrives in the spring.
Updated: Jan 26, 8pm. Added link to city summary notice