Members of Belleville city council will be seeing a lot of each other next week as they sit down to come up with an operating budget for this year.
Staff is presenting a draft budget showing an over 7% increase from 2018 with the city needing revenue of close to $157 million, almost $103 million of that to be raised from local taxes.
As part of the budget proposal, six new full time staff are being requested in various departments, including two new overnight transit bus drivers, due to heavy demand from riders for the new nighttime service.
Staff has also included $500,000 to be set aside for capital projects in an effort to catch up with infrastructure needs.
Quinte West council recently voted the same amount be added to its budget, a move to be continued in the years ahead.
As well, council will hear presentations on the budgets of outside organizations such as Hastings County and the Hastings Prince Edward Health Unit.
Three days have been set aside for budget talks, beginning Tuesday, April 2.
