City manager Joe Day knows Humboldt residents and councillors won’t be happy with a potential 6.25 per cent tax hike.

“We have to sit down as an administration and figure out where we can cut some more costs or perhaps bring in a little bit more revenue,” he told Bolt FM.

The biggest cost included in an update on budget deliberations to city council at Tuesday’s public meeting was $195,000 from the province’s cancellation of grant-in-lieu payments. The PST revenue sharing grant is down 6.48 per cent year-over-year, costing the city $72,000.

In all the city faces a deficit of $364,000, which translates to the 6.25 per cent increase.

Residents have faced tax increases of more than six per cent in recent years due to downloading of costs from the province, but the city aims to keep this year’s increase below five per cent, Day said.

He hopes the public gets involved in the budget process and provides feedback as to where it can be cut or where revenues could be found, he said.

Council should be able to pass a budget before the end of the year, which gives the city a head start on hiring contractors and buying materials for next year’s construction season, Day said.