Amherstburg Council is asking administration to find a way to bring down the proposed tax increase in the 2014 budget from 10.01% closer to the 3% to 5% range.

“We’ve looked at it and we said ‘hey that’s not acceptable,'” says Mayor Wayne Hurst, noting the proposed increase is hard to swallow. “Go away with the department heads, go away and come back and of course that will be our starting point to have some dialogue.”

“This was not a fluff budget by any means that administration put through, they did their due diligence to put together what they felt was exactly what we had to do,” says Ron Sutherland, Amherstburg’s deputy mayor. He says administration will have a difficult job to do to bring down the proposed increase.

The proposed budget increase is meant to tackle financial challenges the town is facing which sees the town’s reserves depleted. Council has put off budget talks until Tuesday.