Taxes: “keep them low” is not a complete position
How candidates framed taxes, spending and the tradeoffs behind municipal budgets.
The tax discussion produced one of the clearest dividing lines in the council field.
Werner, Casson and Zopf expressed strong resistance to continued increases.
Fowler, Drapala and Wehner were more explicit that necessary infrastructure may require higher taxes.
Valstar emphasized that grants are still taxpayer money.
Wehner argued reserves and sometimes debt are legitimate tools for spreading infrastructure costs over time.
Sinclair raised a different question entirely: whether flat municipal charges are fair to households with very different incomes.
None of these positions answers the budget by itself.
The useful follow-up for every candidate is the same:
What do you fund, what do you defer, and what do you stop doing?