Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano talks about passing the 2015 City Budget with a residential tax increase of 1.89 percent…

Council passed the 2015 City Budget on Monday with a 1.89 percent tax increase for the average homeowner. That translates into 49 dollars for a person who owns a home valued at 165 thousand 700 dollars. The final figure was made possible through the collapse of several miscellaneous reserves totalling just over 100 thousand dollars, along with the removal of 100 thousand dollars from the Capital from Current portion. Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano defended the decision to allocate the majority of 3 and half million dollars in surplus to lowering the tax levy…

Provenzano feels changes will have to come in preparation for next year’s budget so as to not depend on surplus money…

Another goal accomplished last night came in the approval of a list of requests related to the Northern Community Centre. Mayor Provenzano felt the time was now to get the project completed as quickly as possible — even though it will mean amoritizing thousands of dollars in debt over a four year period. Other items added to the budget included 30 thousand dollars for the Emerald Ash Program and 50 thousand dollars for the city to be a part of the Healthy Kids Community Challenge, part of a four year commitment to that program. The tax levy was partially lowered by removing 100 thousand dollars from the Capital to Current portion of the budget. This means that some city projects would be phased in over two years instead of one, but they would still get finished according to City CAO Joe Fratesi. Provenzano was asked about where he saw Sault Ste. Marie financially next year — he says certain factors will be crucial in determining where money will be spent in the future…

Provenzano adds if those systemic problems are addressed, it could lead to bigger issues ten years from now. The mayor does plan to perform a spending review during this year in order to prepare for the 2016 budget. During that time, a solution is expected on how to deal with financial support for various outside agencies.