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The numbers are out, and they’re not good enough.

It’s time to look at dialing back programs and cutting services, politicians decided Tuesday night, voting decisively to recommend city hall departments and city agencies sharpen their pencils, and offer up some ways to shave down budgets.

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“There’s no way we’ll be able to avoid some tough decisions here,” council’s budget chair Josh Morgan said.

“This budget is going to be about where to spend our limited resources.”

The direction emerged from a special meeting called to address budget numbers that are way higher than council predicted, to the tune of a four per cent tax hike in 2020. That would mean an extra $114 on the property tax bill for an London homeowner with an average home assessed at $241,000.

It’s more than 50 per cent higher than the 2.7 per cent target council set earlier this year, a tax hike that would see an extra $82 on the property tax bill of an average home.