It will be a long evening for Niagara Regional Councillors tonight with a final decision on the regional tax levy expected to be made.
The Budget Committee is recommending a 7% increase this year on the amount residents pay for regional services, compared to last year.
Commissioner of Finance at the Region, Todd Harrison, joined CKTB saying he knows it's a bad time for any increases, but they can't avoid shortchanging infrastructure investments any longer.
"All municipalities are running what we call an infrastructure deficit. That is not sustainable. We have significant infrastructure that needs to be improved. This year we went with a 2.5% increase on top of what the operating costs are."
Harrison says the Region respects taxpayers' dollars.
"Our departments come in below inflation."
Niagara residents pay a regional levy and their own municipal taxes, which are decided on by local councils.
Some local municipalities, such as Welland, have passed a negative per cent budget increase for residents, passing on the savings of the community not paying for transit to residents.
The major change this year, is that transit was uploaded to the regional budget.
The Niagara Transit Commission is working with a $55M budget for 2023.
You can watch tonight's meeting by clicking here.