Huron County Council is getting closer to finalizing the 2026 budget.
Council was presented with proposed adjustments to this year’s budget, which led to lengthy discussion about what stays and what goes.
During Wednesday’s meeting, council decided in a tight 8-7 decision to scrap the Airport Road roundabout, which had been deferred from last year’s capital budget plans.
It was initially proposed that the project be deferred another year, but several councillors disagreed with putting the project off or having the next sitting of council decide on the project.
There were a total of 11 different items that were under discussion during Wednesday’s meeting.
A decision was agreed to supplement funding to the Town of Goderich to help cover court security costs, where the county would provide up to $200,000 to cover the costs that were downloaded by the provincial government last year.
An item that was removed from consideration was the operating costs associated with the funding of 14 non-union staffing positions, as it was under the operating budget and not capital.
After this week’s meeting, the proposed tax rate increase sits at 5.56%.
Council had directed staff to come up with a proposed budget that would have an increase of 4-6%.
