The 2013 Windsor budget approved by city council Monday night has the mayor boasting.

Eddie Francis is especially proud of the fact this year's spending plan includes an extra $64 million in the capital budget.

Approximately $20 million will be spent on roads.

"For those individuals that thought they were somewhat inconvenienced as a result of road construction this past year, it's going to become even more difficult to navigate around the city," Francis said. "Wyandotte [Street] and Tecumseh [Road] are going to be redone, from a mill-and-pave perspective in certain sections.

"The reason we do this is because we can do it. Obviously, doing all this while holding the line on taxes is equally as impressive," he said.

But Councillor Alan Halberstadt wants no one left with the impression this new money will fix everything.

"We're a long way from being out of the woods. We have 20 per cent of our roads that are now deficient. Another significant percentage that are one to five years from being deficient. So this won't put much of a dent in that. So next year we'll be back at it again," Halberstadt said. Taxes in Windsor will remain the same as they were five years ago and Transit Windsor fares will also stay the same as they were last year.

An injection of public money will allow Transit Windsor to launch technological improvements to give riders a better idea of when the next bus is coming.

"This zero per cent achievement is really astounding. Nobody else can boast a record of that nature. A lot of folks will then turn to us and say, 'Are you increasing fees elsewhere?' With transit, we're able to get away with not doing it tonight, thanks to what was presented there," said councillor Bill Marra.

Another highlight is that more money has been approved to build a new $18-million city hall, a project the mayor says could begin within a year.

"It was a balanced budget," the mayor said. "This council, the past council and the council prior to that have been very supportive of the budgets that we put in front of them. We're very fortunate that we have a council that works together, that doesn't always have to agree on the issues. But this council works together and in times of budget sessions, they are able to understand what the priorities of this community are."

City officials said provincial aid has also helped keep taxes from rising the last few years.

University of Windsor political expert Cheryl Collier said that at some point in the future taxes have to rise.

"You can't hold the line on taxes forever, unless you keep cutting services forever or unless somebody else steps in and wants to pay for those services," Collier said.