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Three Councillors Opposed Tax Levy Increase

Friday, 15 December 2023 11:51

By Marcie Culbert X @marcieculbert

Three Oxford County Councillors voted against the 16.7 percent increase to Oxford County's tax levy for 2024.

OXFORD COUNTY - The 16.7 percent increase to the general tax levy was not approved by all members of Oxford County Council.

It came down to a 7-3 vote on Wednesday, with Woodstock Mayor Jerry Acchione, Woodstock City-County Councillor Deb Tait, and Tillsonburg Mayor Deb Gilvesy voting against it.

Acchione says some motions were brought forward in hopes of saving some money.

"None of them were successful. We were not able to really reduce the budget by anything significant, but then there were additions to that, that raised it from a 15.3 percent proposed increase to the 16.7 percent that we ended up at."

Those motions included not extending the hours of the village library branches for the time being and removing the hiring of a Community Environmental Sustainability Specialist from the budget.

With the approved 16.7 percent increase to the tax levy, the average Oxford County homeowner will have to pay an extra $154 on the county's portion of their property taxes in 2024. 

Acchione says moving forward, he believes it's important for County Council to look at the big picture.

"I think it's really important that we look at what affects the budgets year-over-year. It's already been proven that any goal has a cost to it, so as a Councillor at the County of Oxford, I will be looking at those thinking of the big picture of what that is going to ultimately cost in any future budgets."

During an interview with Heart FM yesterday, Warden Marcus Ryan said funding for affordable housing, homelessness response, paramedic services, and long-term care made up the bulk of the tax levy increase, so those services would have to be cut to reduce it.

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