Mayor Matt Brown pledged a tax hike near the rate of inflation — and the 2.5% increase approved Thursday is close enough that he’ll take it.

Council, in a special meeting Thursday, approved the increase that will boost property taxes on an average London home, assessed at $214,000, by $63.

“It’s a reasonable rate to set. We have seen (inflation) move around and this falls within that range,” Brown said in interview after councillors unanimously passed the budget.

The national inflation rate is 2.2%.

The London Chamber of Commerce supported a tax hike in the range of 2 to 3%, Brown said

“What we saw was a council taking into account short-term and long-term goals. When we set budget targets artificially low, it creates additional pressures.”

The first budget drafted by a council with 11 rookies is a far cry from the first budget of the previous council. Following the lead of then mayor Joe Fontana, council delivered the first of two straight tax freezes in their first budget.

Brown praised his council colleagues for tackling their toughest job a few weeks after being sworn in.

“I have to congratulate all of my colleagues for rising to the challenge. They approached this with discipline, with focus.”

Councillors engaged in 25 hours of debate, compared with more than 60 hours last year, he said.

“I have been involved in five budgets, this was the smoothest budget to date.”

Brown cited this as a tough budget session as previous councils kept tax increases “artificially low” creating pressure to re-invest in this session. Coun, Phil Squire, one of the rookies, said he supported the budget “very reluctantly.

“I would have liked to see us do better and believe we could have done better,” he said.

He called for $1.5 million more in spending cuts from the $800-million operating budget that would have reduced the increase to 2.2%, but it did not get support at the table.

“Taxes are important to me . . . I have owned a home since 1988. If I look at where I am today in terms of taxes, they have gone up over 100%,” Squire said.

That has created hardship for many homeowners, he said.

“This is not a day of celebration for me.”

He admitted to feeling frustration that many budget decisions were made before he took office, so had little input.

“I felt like I was a passenger on this trip . . . I’m hopeful as we move forward councillors will have more input .”

Homeowners will also pay an additional $55 in water and sewer charges.

The budget talks began nearly three months ago with the proposed increase at 2.9%, and it threatened at one point to rise to 3.9%, but was reduced.

“We need to look for savings each and every day, we demonstrated that over the last 2 1/2 months,” Brown said.?