Working towards a 4% tax increase - some expensive ideas being floated.

Budget 2020 redBy Pepper Parr

December 10th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

On Tuesday and Thursday of this week council is going to go through documents and approve the 2020 operating budget including any budget amendments approved by the Committee of the Whole – Budget to be applied against the proposed net tax levy amount of $173,635,179; and

Approve the 2020 capital budget for the City of Burlington, with a gross amount of $85,791,551 with a debenture requirement of $7,613,145, and the 2021-2029 capital forecast with a gross amount of $723,878,943 with a debenture requirement of $47,592,200

Administer the debenture in the amount of $6,113,145 in 2020 as tax supported debt; and

Administer the debenture in the amount of $1,500,000 in 2020 as special circumstances debt; and

Declare that, in accordance with sis. 5(1)5 of the Development Charges Act, 1997 and s. 5 of Ontario Regulation 82/98, it is Council’s clear intention that the excess capacity provided by the above-referenced works will be paid for by future development charges.

Then they will send it all to a December 16th council meeting when we will learn if they were able to keep the tax increase for 2020 is kept at the 4% level.

The proposed 2020 operating budget is $173.6 million and the 2020 capital budget is $85.8 million, with a ten-year program of $809.7 million.

The capital program focuses on the city’s infrastructure requirements to address the much-needed renewal of these assets in the most cost-effective manner. The budget reflects incremental tax supported funding of 1.25% ($2.075 million) from the operating budget to support the city’s infrastructure requirements.

Approval of the 2020 budget will establish the authority for preparing the 2020 Tax Levy By-law. For each $100,000 of residential assessment, this translates into an overall increase of $19.38.

Two days of hard slogging – and then finding a way to explain why inflation sits at the 2.5% level but the city needs a 4% increase over last year to pay the bills.

City council on innauguration Dec 3rd - 2018

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5 comments to Working towards a 4% tax increase – some expensive ideas being floated.

  • Elan

    Burlington taxes (property by property) are among the lowest relative to adjacent municipalities in the GTA, Tax base increases among the same municipalities are far higher than 4%, which puts Burlington further behind. Hard Truth. Failure to appreciate this disparity, and the fact that previous “development friendly” council decisions (supported by Paul Sharman) insisted on 0% tax increases, puts Burlington behind the eight ball on holding the line on current services, let alone keeping pace with future demands. Yet, many residents want more…but dont want to pay for it.

    Also, there are those Councillors who preach that there is a Climate Emergency, Yet, Rory Nissan, the apparent architect of this, effectively and actively slam dunks any meaningful attempts to include real Climate initiatives in the 2020 budget. We realize many of his rural constituents probably do not support these initiatives. I feel he is playing politics.

    All we, as residents, ask for is truth and transparency. Say what you mean and mean what you say. If we do not agree, fair game. Don’t declare a Climate Emergency (Rory), and ignore any meaningful attempts to rectify it.

  • Angela P.

    Council had suggested they would identify tax increases directly resulting from the Ford government policies as a separate line item. Have they been able to do this and relate it to the City’s proposed increase?

    • Eve St Clair

      Council is using Premier Ford’s cuts as an excuse to raise taxes . Lots of ways to cut budget including so called climate change initiatives . Council needs to do better

      • James

        100% accurate! They’ve alienated and made very little money off the development and construction industry for the past year (which is normally their cash cow), passed an unnecessary private tree by-law requiring the hiring of 5 new full time staff each with their own electric vehicles, threw money at rainbow painted crosswalks, gave healthy severance packages to several senior staff, paid outside consultants hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare reports that the private sector could get done at a fraction of the cost, lost $500K to a scammer, gave 7 or 8 people paid vacations to Japan, spent money to rebuild the parking lot next to Kelly’s Bake Shop and somehow ended up with less parking spots, paid for Burlassic Park celebrations, need I go on? This city is irresponsibly bleeding money at a rate faster than they’re making it, yet somehow this is Premier Ford’s fault? Nice try. I know I didn’t get a 4% pay increase this year, did you? They talk about affordability and deflect blame onto others while reaching their hands deeper and deeper into our pockets. Why not figure out what money you have and then determine how best to use it, rather than dreaming up a number you want to spend and then jamming the taxpayers for more money? Maybe I’ll do that. I’m going to figure out how much I want to spend in 2020 and then I’ll tell my boss that’s what she’s got to pay me. Let’s see how that works out.

        • Eve St Clair

          Couldn’t of said that better,James . Thank you for stating what most of us ,taxpayers think ,yet when confronting Mayor and Council they turn a deaf ear . One of the items that irks me is the 10 new EV spaces set up and paid for by the City when there is no need