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5 |Thursday July 6, 2017 | OAKVILLE BEAVER |www.insidehalton.com Adams to head budget committee for 10th straight year by Nathan Howes Oakville Beaver Staff The Town of Oakville is gearing up to set its budget -- and property taxes rate -- for 2018. The Town' s first Budget Committee meeting was held Monday, June 26, where the first order of business was to select a councillor to chair the committee. For the 10th consecutive year, Ward 6 Regional and Town Councillor Tom Adams was chosen. With Adams once again ensconced in the familiar role, the committee moved on to discuss budget guidelines as well as forecasts for 2019 and 2020. The committee' s guideline, based on a preliminary forecast, is that the Town look at a property tax hike of 3.41 per cent -- which when softened by combining it with lesser increases by Halton Region and the local school boards, would impact property taxes with a hike somewhere between 1.8 and 2.34 per cent. The proposed 2018 hike, Adams' selection as committee chair and a report on optimizing the Delivery of Town programs and services will go before Town Council Monday, July 10. "Our key focus for this budget is to meet our goal of keeping overall property tax increases in line with inflation, while building and renewing infrastructure and maintaining high quality services for the community," said Adams, in a media release. "Public input is a critical piece of our annual budget process and I look forward to engaging with residents over the next few m onths." The Bank of Canada is forecasting general inflation to be in the two per cent range for 2018. Inflation is currently running below this rate, according to the m ost recent data released by Statistics Canada. property taxes to the Town, the m oney collected is shared between the municipality (Oakville), regional municipality (Halton), and whichever school board, Catholic or public, a property owner elects to support. The Town' s proposed portion of the tax bill (3.41 per cent) is slightly higher than the increase forecast in the 2017 budget due to the impact the Province' s proposed minimum wage increase would have on wages and revised revenue projections for Oakville Transit. These impacts would be partially offset by a reduction in benefit premium rates for 2017-18. see Budget on p.12 Ward 6 Councillor Tom Adams On May 19, the April year-over-year rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 1.6 per cent, so based on current trends, the Town recommended its target for the overall increase be set at 1.8 per cent. The figure factors in the Region of Halton' s forecast of a 2.3 per cent increase and zero increases in education tax rates. W hile residents pay Living LIGHTING Where solutions com e to light. FAN SALE WINNER SAVE UP TO 30% *Sale ends August 31, 2017 or while quantities last. We've got you covered, Canada! Enjoy coast-to-coast coverage with our new cross-Canada plan. E xperience all th a t o u r b e a u tifu l c o u n try has to o ffe r and sta y co n n e cte d w ith 3GB o f data plus u n lim ite d C a n a da-w id e ta lk and te x t fo r o n ly $5 5 /m o .* W h e th e r y o u 're hom e o r away, o u r new C anada 150 Plan has you covered. H urry! O ffe r ends soon. + S U M M E R C L E A R A N C E SALE Living Lighting Oakville r Serving Oakville & Mississauga * 3 ^ Freedom Fre ed o m m o b ile .ca/150 m obile 9 0 5 -8 2 9 -8 8 8 7 2501 H am pshire G ate, # 7b (Dundas & Winston Churchill) oakville@livinglighting.com · www.livinglightingoakville.com Oakville Smart Centre 261 Oak Walk Drive Unit J2, Oakville 289.291.3261 Walkers Line 3505 Upper Middle Road Burlington 289.427.5260 Appleby Village 5111 New Street Burlington 905.635.0584 FR EE accessories ($30 value) With any new activation on a $ 40+ Pay After plan. Must activate at stores listed Offer ends soon or while quantities last. *O fferisavailableuntilA ugust 2,2017 and is subjectto changeor cancellation withoutnotice.Thisofferm aynotbe com binedwith any other in-market offer,with some exceptions.Them ajorityofyourusage(data, talkor text) on the Canada150P lanisin tendedtobeusedontheFreedom M obile network. Applicable taxes extra.Additionaf terms andconditionsapply. Learn more at freedommobile.ca.All services are subjecttoFreedom M obile'sTerm sofService, FairUsage Policy and InternetTraf^icManagement Policy. The Freedom M obile name andlogosand other words, titles, phrases, marks, logos, icons, graphics are trademarks of, orareused under license by, Freedom M obile Inc.