WATERLOO - Waterloo council has confirmed a 2.3 per cent tax hike for 2017, adding $29 to the average property tax bill and staying on track to raise taxes 8.6 per cent during this term.

The city approved a three-year budget earlier this year and opted not to make any tweaks Monday.

Coun. Diane Freeman opposed the budget.

"I will be voting against this motion," she said. "It's mainly to do with the fact that at the time we did the budget work I still wanted us to strive to meet the CPI (consumer price index)."

To craft the three-year plan, councillors abandoned city policy to match tax hikes to inflation when they approved the three-year budget. That would have raised taxes about 7.5 per cent between 2015 and 2018.

Staff wanted to raise taxes 10.5 per cent over four years, but councillors trimmed that back.

Abandoning the inflation policy came after councillors chose to replace another city tax policy called the Municipal Price Index.

The index considered the costs of several city expenses, including salaries and benefits, electricity, water and sewer, natural gas and the consumer and construction price indices.

Using the index, the previous council raised taxes 6.8 per cent between 2011 and 2014, including stormwater fees.

Budget chair Jeff Henry said council crafted a responsible budget that brought in some worthwhile initiatives.

"We didn't always agree on all of them, but we did come to a broad course over the next three years that was responsible and prudent and predictable for our citizens," Henry said.

Water rates are expected to be confirmed Dec. 12. Staff propose hiking rates 3.6 per cent. Combined with regional charges, bills would go up about 5.7 per cent.

Operating budget highlights for 2017 include:

• $1.3 million for an undisclosed in camera item

• $1 million for sanitary sewer treatment

• $270,000 for new municipal building officials

• $124,000 for a heritage planner

• $122,000 for a fire prevention officer

• $89,500 for a traffic technician

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• $89,000 for outdoor sports programming

• About $69,000 for new parks and trails

About $179 million in capital spending was approved for 2016 to 2018. The 2017 project highlights include:

• $9.5 million for the uptown parking needs assessment and implementation

• $5.3 million to purchase land for a west side recreation facility

• $2.2 million for the uptown community improvement plan

• $2 million for a west side employment collector

• $1.6 million for fleet replacement and expansion

• $1.2 million for the trail and bikeways master plan implementation

• $409,000 for the expansion of Alexandra Park

• $392,000 for rapid transit station and planning implementation

By the end of 2017, staff are expected to report to council with a recommendation whether to keep, change or permanently abandon the Consumer Price Index policy when setting the budget.