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Preliminary tax hike pegged at $107 per homeowner CYNTHIA GAMBLE Staff Writer If nothing changes in the next five months-- and it likely will-- Halton Hills residents can look forward to an average $107 increase on their 2007 tax bills. Halton Hills budget committee-- which includes all members of council-- gave staff the go-ahead at a Wednesday meeting to begin preparing the 2007 operating and capital budgets. Direction was given to staff to prepare for January deliberations, a $22.3 million budget-- a 3.1 per cent increase over this year's budget, plus 2 per cent dedicated to the pavement management program, plus another 1.3 per cent for the hiring of fulltime firefighters. This 6.4 per cent increase translates to a $60 increase of taxes for the average home assessed at $300,000. Combined with Halton Region and school board taxes, the overall increase on tax bills is 3.6 per cent or $107 ($36 per $100,000 of assessment value). Region taxes are going up $47 (again, if nothing changes between now and final approval). School taxes remain unchanged. Total taxes paid on a home assessed at $300,000 will be $3,099 ($990 for the Town, $1,317 for the Region and $792 for education). Director of Finance Ed DeSousa in his presentation to the budget committee said a long list of factors can be attributed to the increases including the potential hiring of the four firefighters ($290,000), increase in employee benefits, CPP/EI See HOMEOWNERS, pg. 3 Lost in the Mungle Jungle Demon slayers Madam Hermandez (Erin Troughton, 9) and Dr. Cortez (Jacqueline Johnson, 10) peeked through the bushes to get a closer look at the tribes in the Halton Hills Recreation and Parks Department Summer Musical Theatre Camp's production of Mungle Jungle at John Elliott Theatre. The play told a story of explorers trying to find lost artifacts, in a race between the good and evil explorers. Photo by Ted Brown