City council believes that a 4.5 per cent tax increase can be decreased to 2.5 per cent, but won't settle on a solid number since information isn't in yet from all sources.
Over the last month-and-a-half, the finance committee has spent countless hours debating, cutting, and reworking the city budget along with city staff.
The message all along was “the lower, the better.”
Once the provincial education tax is tacked on, estimated by city CFO Lorella Hayes at 0.6 per cent, taxpayers will be looking at a 3.1 per cent tax increase.
“The education rate hasn't been set by the province yet and won't be set until the new year,” Hayes said. “But if we look historically at how they calculate the rates, if we look at history, if it should carry forward into the future, it will be an additional 0.6 per cent increase for an overall 3.1 tax increase.”
The city is also still waiting on the province to know how much Ontario Municipal Partnership fund (OMPF) money it will receive.
This could drastically affect the budget, and the tax increase, according to Hayes.
“The city is uncertain at this point whether the province will provide one-time funding again this year,” said Hayes.
In a worst case scenario, the city could be looking at being out in excess of $6 million. That would equal more than a three per cent tax increase, she said.
“Council would have to make (a) decision, they could either take the budget and look for further reductions or a combination of reductions and tax increase,” Hayes said.
The city can't speculate at this point how much funding they will receive, although “historically, the province has provided one-time funding to municipalities."
Last year the province provided statements stating the funding could disappear, but the city has not received confirmation of that, Hayes said.
“I can't make any guesses as to what the province is going to do.”
Last year the city had the number at this time in the year, but that isn't the case this year. Hayes is hoping the province replies within the next few weeks.
