The Portage city council is touting a lean budget this year. Councillor Brent Froese says they're keeping to the trend of lower tax increases and in fact are now at a zero tax increase. Froese notes this being a non-assessment year means your actual tax bill will be exactly what it was last year, aside from the school tax portion which city council doesn't control.

He says it was a good exercise in working together, with council giving administration direction to bring in a lean budget and then asking them to tighten it even more. Froese adds they had a few costs they couldn't control, including some negotiated wage rates which were a bit higher than expected. He says the administration sharpened their pencils and found ninety thousand dollars worth of efficiencies in operating expenses, noting the city is actually operating leaner than they were before. Froese adds this allowed council to do some things in their budget which make them very proud.