Abbotsford mayor Bruce Banman says the goal is to keep the tax increase below the rate of inflation.

City Council saw a draft budget that included a base increase of 0.52 percent, with funding requests that would push it to 2.06.

Banman says there is also a challenge from the provincial government decision to increase exemptions for farmland buildings.

“That decision, which they projected would only be about 200 to 250 thousand dollars difference in our tax base, turns out to be close to a million dollars, because we have high amounts of farms that have buildings on them. Now we’re forced to find close to a million dollars out of the general revenues to try to replace that somehow.”

According to the budget draft, if the shortfall isn’t addressed through cuts or some other means, it could mean another 0.76 percent increase.