ARNPRIOR – Earlier this week Arnprior council chipped away another .5 per cent to bring in this year’s tax increase to 1.5 per cent over 2020.

Town of Arnprior Municipal taxes will rise 1.5 per cent in 2021, after a budget session Monday (Feb. 1) shaved the number down from a staff recommended two per cent increase.

Mayor Walter Stack says he believes the compromise was a good one.

“A very responsible budget,” Stack told the media following the passing of the budget Monday. “A lot of hard work went in to it. The trick is to try to control the expenditures and minimize the impact on the ratepayers, Of course, after a COVID year that’s tougher than it has been in the past. And also balance that against feeding the reserves so we can keep going forward with doing the streets and sidewalks and watermains and sewers that we have to.”

The mayor says administration faced a number of challenges in what had been a very difficult year.

Lowering the hike from two per cent to 1.5 shaves an estimated $1.68 per month from taxes on an average home assessed at $221,000.