The Waterloo Regional Police Board has agreed to move ahead with a 6.63 per cent budget increase for 2020 at $180,774,000.
That will translate to about $30 more dollars in yearly taxes for each average household.
To limit the tax rate impact on regional residents, Police Chief Bryan Larkin says they will be reaching into their reserves for $715,000 to limit the impact on the tax rate.
“We did also find approximately $150,000 of other savings that we could pull from our operational piece. So in totality, we found about six million dollars in savings overall in the operating budget, and around five million dollars on the capital budget.”
He says it is normal to have a slight budget increase from year-to-year, based on cost of living and other rising costs.
“I’m always very concerned about our budget impact on overall community safety, overall community delivery services. I do believe that the community supports the police service, I do believe that the community understands that for $666, they are receiving good, adequate service and any interaction that individuals have with our members, the feedback I get is generally very positive.”
The 6.63 per cent operating budget increase will have a tax impact of 1.5 per cent, which will translate to $666 per average household.
Last year’s net budget was at $169,534,000, and the tax impact translated to $635 per average household.
