LATEST STORIES:
Hamilton councillors press city staff over 2024 budget
As budget talks get underway at city hall, Hamilton councillors pressed city staff with questions and concerns over the proposed monetary plan for 2024.
Hamilton’s finance manager presented council with a draft of the budget Friday, outlining some of the city’s plans — including a 7.9 per cent tax increase, which has many councillors worried.
Ward 9 Councillor Brad Clark said residents in his community have expressed that they cannot afford the increase. “They’re struggling with their mortgage costs, their rent, their automobile costs, gas, food.”
Ward 11 Councillor Mark Tadeson echoed the sentiment and said that he wished a limit of four per cent had been set — a number he says would have been more in line with what Hamiltonians can afford to pay.
“Nobody wants to be at 7.9 per cent,” said Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath. “We know that’s going to be painful for people, but nor do we want to pretend we don’t have a housing and homelessness crisis.”
For the average household, the increase marks a $382 jump in property taxes.
The city says the tax hike can be broken down into four categories:
- 2.7 per cent of it covers the increasing costs of city services;
- 2.6 per cent accounts for new provincial legislation to shift infrastructure costs from developers to taxpayers;
- 1.6 per cent will go towards housing and homelessness; and,
- One per cent for local hospital as part of a provincial redevelopment plan.
However, even with the increase, property taxes only account for around half of the city’s $2.4 billion gross budget, meaning the city will have to tap into its reserves.
Around $216 million of reserve funding has been earmarked for projects over the next four years, such as updating transit, creating an encampment protocol and creating more supportive housing.
“We’re not recommending depleting some of our discretionary reserves, but drawing on some stabilization reserves to effect affordability and to somewhat spread out these investments over the four-year period,” Mike Zegarac, the city’s finance manager told council.
The city says in order to pull from the reserves now, council must commit to gradually raising taxes over the next four years.
Under the current proposal, Hamilton would see a 7.7 percent increase in 2025, 6.4 in 2026 and 4.9 in 2027.
No decisions will be made until Feb. 15th, when council is expected to approve the budget.
READ MORE:
