Essex Town Council has some hard decisions ahead of it as it holds its second budget session Monday night.
Council has already slashed around 50 items from the budget to bring the increase for 2017 down. When it first went to council, the spending plan called for an increase of more than 20%.
"We've been busy," says Director of Corporate Services Donna Hunter, who adds that they've pared the increase down to 5.25%.
That's not good enough for Mayor Ron McDermott.
"Not even I can afford that," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, we as a council better not be looking at a wish list."
Council has already settled on an increase of at least 1.5%, so McDermott says there is still a lot of cutting to do. He would like to see a total increase of no more than 2%.
"Like we've got people telling me, 'Oh, this year we get our splash pad, eh?', and I say 'Well if I have my way I'll say no,'" says McDermott. "It's crunch time."
Hunter says already a number of road projects have been either deleted or delayed, including work on County Rd. 13.
McDermott missed the first budget meeting on February 6, but says he has heard from the administration that some councillors are eyeing the reserves. He says that's off limits as far as he's concerned.
"Those reserves are in there for a reason. You know what the government's doing to us. Downloading, downloading, downloading. Jeepers crow," he says. "There's going to come a time when we need to have a few dollars in the reserves."