The committee endorsed the tax hike for 2008 at its meeting Tuesday evening. If approved by town council on Monday, that means urban residents will pay $45.93 extra on the Town portion of their tax bill while rural residents will fork over an additional $37.93. Both numbers are based on a property assessment of $300,000.

While Town staff originally recommended a 6.6 per cent increase, the budget committee debated for many hours on Monday and Tuesday nights and made several motions on what to leave in and take out of the budget before ultimately arriving back at 6.6 per cent.

But before they hashed out the numbers, the committee members first heard from two local residents regarding the proposed 2008 budget.

Rick Matchett, on behalf of the Milton Rural Residents Association, argued that savings the Town will see in GTA pooling funds -- a system used to help Toronto pay for its social services that's being phased out -- should be given back to the taxpayers.

Currently, the savings in Halton are being divided, with half going toward the Region's needs and the other half to municipalities' infrastructure requirements.

"The money being collected is not being used for what it's intended for," said Matchett.

Committee also heard from local resident Marshall Horner, who urged the councillors around the table to increase the staffing of Milton's fulltime fire service by 10 firefighters next year and an additional 10 in 2009.

During Tuesday evening's session the proposed tax hike started climbing over seven per cent as the committee voted to add things back into the budget that had been cut to reach the 6.6 per cent increase.

The items added include: $31,000 to implement a graffiti removal policy, $15,000 to support the June Street Festival and $4,000 to increase subsidy support for individuals and families who need assistance paying for Town user fees.

Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson also made a motion to increase the number of new firefighters hired next year from four to five. "Four says we got the message -- five says we care."

Wards 1 and 3 Councillor Barry Lee voiced opposition to the change.

"We're starting to run the fire department and the (new) chief isn't here yet," noted Lee, with Ward 4 Councillor Paul Scherer sharing similar sentiments.

But Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray emphasized that the local fire crews are at risk now, since some fire trucks are going out to calls with only three firefighters on board.

"We have to have that support for the fire department," she said. "We're going to lose somebody's life because of this."

Nelson's motion ended up carrying, adding $46,800 to the budget.

A similar amount was also taken out of the fire budget after a resolution from Scherer to remove a portion of the money -- $43,800 -- allocated for a new deputy fire chief was approved, which means he or she won't be hired now until July 1.

The conversation then turned to the overall tax hike, with Mayor Gord Krantz voicing his concern for the Town's proposed tax increase.

"The Region is coming in with (a) 3.7 per cent (proposed tax increase) -- in my opinion that's reasonable," he said.

But Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau said the reason the Town's tax increases are starting to get high now is because they were low or non-existent for so long.

"I really don't understand why we behave like we're a place where people are impoverished or what the compulsion is to have low tax increases," she said. "Wonderful communities cost money. The people of Milton are willing to contribute a fair amount to do that."

Lee argued that the root of the problem is growth.

"Growth costs. That's the situation we're in now and we have to deal with it," he said

By the end of Tuesday's session, the committee supported taking $150,000 out of the $400,000 allocated for the Milton Community Fund and putting it toward the tax levy, bringing the proposed tax increase back down from over seven per cent to 6.6 per cent.

The Town's total proposed budget for 2008 is $77 million, with almost $50 million of that in the operating costs and $27 million on the capital project side. Almost $21 million of the operating budget will come from property taxes, with other funds coming from things like user fees, service charges and grants.

The $27 million in the capital budget will be invested in 96 new projects, including $3.7 million in the new Town Hall, $2.5 million in the new library branch, $2.3 million in a fourth fire station and $1.4 million in a railway underpass on Main Street.

The budget will be on town council's agenda Monday.

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com.