Waiving penalties and interests on bills has worked at giving residents some financial respite.
But Tay Township could go a step further by looking at measures to ensure no tax hikes for the coming year.
"Since budget approval in December," said Joanne Sanders, director of finance/treasurer, "this has been a really good year other than COVID-19. There have been very few changes to our cost projections and original budget estimates."
With the budget changes staff has proposed, including reducing the tax levy by $235,000 (by using funds from the 2019 Surplus), the total tax levy requirement translates to an increase of 0.15%, she said.
However, she cautioned that the surplus move could mean less money for capital projects next year.
In her report, Sanders writes that some reductions in revenue and increases in expenditures are coming from waiving of penalties/interest in tax and utilities, reduced investment interest, reduction in supplementary taxes and less building permit revenue.
Some reductions in expenditures include lower fuel costs, reductions in staff conferences and training budgets, leaving staff positions vacant and delaying student hiring.
Where staff was recommending this extra step to ensure residents would receive another financial relief during the pandemic, some council members were of the opinion that the township should go ahead with the planned tax increase.
"The impact is not a lot and the value at 1.35% that we're creating is very good," said Deputy Mayor Gerard LaChapelle. "I don't think it's in our interest to remove that $235,000 (reserve)."
Coun. Mary Warnock agreed: "The increase isn't that much in my household I did inquire with the treasurer if people are using the delayed penalties. There doesn't seem to be a big uptake of that. I think we've come through with a really good budget and 1.35% is very doable for our taxpayers."
But Coun. Barry Norris pointed out the situation isn't the same for everyone.
"It's great that some of the residents have some low assessments," he said, "but it sure impacts a lot of our seasonals that are being assessed and paying a lot of taxes. You may indicate it only affects your particular property by $33 or $40, but there's quite a lot where the assessment is higher."
Coun. Jeff Bumstead brought in the business owner perspective to support the staff recommendation.
"They've lost about 70% of their revenue opportunities so I think this is a time to do anything we can do to bring the tax down," he said.
Mayor Ted Walker said it is an important year to not increase taxes.
“We have a lot of people suffering financially from the COVID crisis," he said. "Fortunately, we did have a surplus last year and we're in a position to help out this year.
“I understand the comments with respect to next year. I suspect in some form or another, we will be getting some financial assistance from the province and federal government. Being able to do this is something important for us to do to give another good news story to our residents who are suffering financially."
The decision made during the committee of all council Wednesday will be ratified at the June council meeting.
