A marathon meeting in Guelph to decide spending ended up with a tax increase lower than expected.

Council approved a 4.46 per cent homeowner tax increase Wednesday, which is lower than the 5.17 per cent they approved for the year under the two-year budget plan.

The new increase works out to another $187 for the average household.

"We did a lot of motions to try to get the budget down, to try to soften the impact for everybody," said Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie. "I'm really proud that at the end of the day the vote was pretty strong, an 11-22 vote of council."

Guthrie says the budget includes investments in affordable housing, affordable transit passes for low-income residents, speeding up an expansion of resources for the paramedic service, and a first investment to offset the impact of the province's new housing bill.