The County of Essex has approved its budget for 2016, which includes a tax increase of 1.88%.
On Wednesday after about four hours of deliberations, county council voted to accept the budget, which will mean a $17 jump in taxes on a home assessed at $200,000.
Director of Corporate Services/Treasurer Rob Maisonville says the budget was well received by council and is slightly lower than a projected 2% increase.
"We have new dollars associated with infrastructure expansion and new dollars related to the [Windsor-Essex] hospital initiative. And we're going to have those dollars in the future," he says. "Council fully appreciated that. They realize that we can't be funding external projects, such as the hospital, on the backs of the legislative programs we deliver."
About 0.9% of the budget increase, which works out to $760,000, will go towards the new joint hospital system between the county and the City of Windsor.
"Half of the [budget] relates to the new hospital system," he says. "We're putting funds aside so that we can address the [county's] $90-million commitment in the future. We're positioned well and very long-term focused."
The full cost of project for the one-site, acute care facility will be $2-billion.
Final approval of budget will take place during a public council meeting on February 17.