Belleville City Council approved the guidelines for the 2026 Operating Budget at its meeting on Monday.
The guidelines include having the budget be presented with overall residential property tax rate increases not exceeding 5%.
This excludes any tax rate increases generated from the 2024 Fire Master Plan phase-in approved by council.
A report to council states the guidelines were based on the first of a series-of-three surveys that are being released to the public as part of the process of creating the operating budget.
The first survey went live on May 13 and was available for roughly three weeks and concluded on June 6 with 705 responses received.
Responses were primarily comprised of homeowners from Belleville’s urban tax table.
An amendment to have the overall tax rate increase not exceed 3.75% failed after a tie vote.
Voting in favour of the amendment were councillors Paul Carr, Lisa-Anne Chatten, Kelly Henderson, and Kathryn Brown.
Voting against were councillors Barbara Enright-Miller, Sean Kelly, Garnet Thompson, and Mayor Neil Ellis.
The original motion of a 5% overall increase passed.
Those in favour included councillors Lisa Anne-Chatten, Barbara Enright-Miller, Sean Kelly, Garnet Thompson, and Mayor Neil Ellis.
Voting against were councillors Paul Carr, Kelly Henderson, and Kathryn Brown.
The 2026 Draft Operating Budget is expected to be released to council and the public on January 29, 2026.
