Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie lost a political battle Monday, but he hopes to still come out victorious in the end.

As council’s corporate services committee pondered guidelines for future municipal budgets, Guthrie suggesting tying all tax increases to the consumer price index, or CPI – a number which measures the increase in the rise of common household goods.

That option was voted down, three votes to two.

Instead, the committee voted to send the issue to the full council for discussion later this month.

In an interview, Guthrie told CTV News he plans to continue to push for budgets to feature tax increases at the CPI rate, at most.

“I was elected to bring in some change,” he said.

“I now need councillors to get onside for that, so that we can prepare the upcoming budget to come in at CPI or less.”

Currently, three factors go into Guelph’s budget formula: the five-year average of the CPI, the average increase in the number of taxable properties over the same time span, and an ‘investment factor’ looking at big projects the city plans to undertake.

“I don’t want us to be focusing on the status quo, what’s been done for years,” Guthrie said.

“The citizens of this city were done with that.”

City staff recommend keeping the CPI and investment factor rules in a new formula, but modifying the part based on Guelph’s growth.