Hamilton’s 2019 capital budget gets approval

The City of Hamilton’s capital budget was passed unanimously today. The half a percent increase for taxpayers means an additional $18 per average household.

The city is planning $6.5 million in improvements to cycling infrastructure. Of that $6.5 million, the city is investing $1.4 million from the 2019 budget. $3.8 million comes in the form of a grant from the provincial government and the rest of the money is from previous city budgets.

The cycling plans for this year includes work that is part of larger roadway projects, like resurfacing and reconstructing.

Roads were a big topic of discussion at today’s meeting. Councillor Brad Clark put forward a motion for an additional 0.5% increase for taxpayers, that would strictly go towards roads.

The motion was defeated, but not without plenty of debate. Clark, Eisenberger, Vanderbeek, and Whitehead arguing that the tax increase for roads is important as it would allow the city to get ahead on issues, but Councillor Sam Merulla argued that the money the increase would generate would not be enough to put a dent in fixing roads. The motion was defeated 9 to 6.

We still have a couple of months to go until the operating budget is finalized which is the budget that determines the most significant portion of the tax hike.