The Village of Point Edward is holding the line on municipal taxes in the midst of all the pandemic turmoil.
Council set a 2020 operating budget Friday totalling $4,463,291 compared to $4,297,083 in 2019. The tax rate will remain the same as 2019 for the village portion of the tax bill, raising $2,692,199.
A house assessed at $150,000 in 2020 will pay $959 in municipal taxes, unchanged from last year, but that doesn't include the county or education levies.
Mayor Bev Hand said it wasn't easy setting the budget given all the challenges and uncertainty created by the pandemic.
“This was the most difficult budget I have ever worked on because of the moving targets COVID-19 creates," said Hand. "It is difficult to determine when operations throughout the village, both public and private, will return to normal and that makes budgeting a very difficult process."
The village's capital budget was passed back in February and will be closely monitored in the coming months as the financial impacts of the pandemic become more clear.
“Council has made major progress in separating the operating budget from casino revenues over the last ten years,” said Finance Chair Larry Gordon. "Those decisions, along with putting money away into reserves, have prepared us well for what we are now going through.”
Point Edward's final tax bills will be mailed in the early part of June and will be due July 2 and October 1, 2020.