Strathroy-Caradoc Council approved the 2025 budget this week on a vote of 7-2 with Councillors Willsie and Derbyshire voting against it. Strathroy-Caradoc Director of Finance Bill Dakin.
In comparison to 2024, Council approved the budget 2 months earlier this year and the tax increase just .12% higher than 2024’s 4.47% tax increase.
Overall not bad compared to area municipalities as Adelaide Metcalfe recently passed their 2025 budget with a 4.66% tax increase.
Overall spending of $77 million comprised of about $30.5 million in capital, and $46.5 million in operations. The funding will come from 1/3 being taxation, and 2/3’s non-taxation or other funding.
It will be a 4.59% tax increase, or $24.4 million in taxation being collected in 2025 which is about $125 on the average tax bill.
Dakin did say he believed, the notion of catching up a little as a municipality before approving anymore large capital projects was one of the variables involved in the budget process.
Strathroy-Caradoc is part of a lower tier municipality so it collects three levels of taxation on the tax bill being the municipal portion responsible for about 50%, and 30% from the county which doesn’t have its budget ready yet, and about 15% from the province which is currently at a 0% tax increase.
He says the municipality has about $30 million right now in work in progress, and overall there’s close to $60 million in total capital projects that will probably either get completed or almost completed in 2025.
Written by: C. Soares