Essex County residents could pay 6% more in taxes this year

Essex County residents are facing a proposed tax increase of 6.13 per cent this year.

That's according to the county's draft budget, which is set to be deliberated over on Wednesday.

The draft budget of $133,697,000 is roughly $10 million more than last year.

The changes would amount to an increase of $31.60 for every $100,000 in property assessment. Therefore, if a property is assessed at $100,000, the homeowner would face a tax bill of $547.31, compared to $515.71 last year.

Mayor says the province is not stepping up

One Essex County mayor is wondering if it is necessary to increase taxes by so much.

"People will accept a three, maybe four per cent increase because they understand inflation and other things," said Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue. "But above that, do we really need to do it?"

Prue says the county has millions of dollars in reserve, but will not be dipping into it to keep this year's tax hike down.

But it's not just the reserves where the county is failing to draw money from. According to Prue, the province shares some of the blame.

"A lot of problems that municipalities have is not with how we're spending our money, but the fact that the province, who used to give us money to do things, has stopped doing it," he says. "So we're having to make it up by increasing taxes."

Prue added that as a result, residents point the finger at municipalities, but not the province for not stepping up to help out.

Detailed lines in the budget show the county is forecasting to receive almost a net $37 million from the province, which is roughly $3.4 million less than last year.

CBC News contacted the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for comment and received a response from Essex MPP Anthony Leardi.

"The government of Ontario continues to provide multimillion dollar support to municipalities across the province of Ontario, and especially the County of Essex," he said in a letter addressed to a CBC Windsor reporter.

Leardi's letter stated that since 2019, the province provided the county with more than $8 million of infrastructure grants and $56 million to the five municipalities in his riding through the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund. He also stated that the province pays half of the costs for the county's ambulance service, with the rest being evenly split by the City of Windsor and Essex County residents.

Here are some of the proposed changes:

Of that additional $10 million the county wants to collect from taxpayers, more than a quarter of it will be spent on infrastructure and planning projects across the county.

Infrastructure-related challenges and key objectives continue to be the same as they were last year.

More than $2.1 million of levies will be spent on the Sun Parlor Long Term Care Home. A big goal is to increase the amount of time a resident receives direct daily care. This year's target is for each resident to receive three hours and 55 minutes of care, but the county hopes to phase in a five-minute increase by 2025.

As well as dealing with inflationary pressures which impact the cost of medical supplies and utilities, the extra levies will help pay the increased amount of staff, one of whom is a new assistant director of nursing.

A further $1.1 million will be spent on improving the county's emergency services. The budget says the money will be spent on paying for an additional ambulance that the county has already added to its fleet, as well as the salaries of 24 new full-time paramedics to help minimize ambulance shortages.

As Windsor-Essex grappled with multiple code red and code black situations last year, which is when there are fewer than two or no ambulances, respectively, available to respond to incoming calls for service, municipal and provincial politicians were calling for action to solve the problem.

County Warden Hilda MacDonald and Deputy Warden Joe Bachetti were unavailable for comment.

Budget deliberations will begin at 4 p.m.