By Pepper Parr
October 30th 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Where does the money come from
Property Taxes
The single largest portion of City funding comes from property taxes.
Senior Government Grants
These grants are provided by provincial and federal governments and are tied directly to legislated cost sharing arrangements. It should be noted that these revenues “flow through” the operating budget and are directly transferred into reserve funds until such time as they may be used for their designated purpose. As such these grants contribute to higher gross revenues and gross expenditures but have no impact on the City’s net operating budget.
User Fees
In accordance with the Municipal Act, 2001, the City of Burlington has by-laws which impose fees and charges for services or activities provided. Examples include: transit fares, permit fees, registration fees and rental revenue for the use of City facilities.
Internal Revenues/Charges
Internal Revenues are related to Internal Charges in that they are the revenues for work done for other services that are internal to the organization. The largest driver of these revenues is the revenue that Fleet Services receives for the work it performs for the other services within the City of Burlington. Other large drivers are the revenue that the City receives from Halton Court Services for a share of the revenue generated as well as the work of some City Services such as Information Technology, Finance and Human Resources perform for the functioning of the Halton Courts.
Other Corporate Revenues
These revenues include returns from the investment portfolio, managed by the Finance department, as well as the dividend and interest the City receives from Burlington Hydro. Other large items include Payments in Lieu of Taxation, Penalty and Interest on Taxes and Supplementary Taxes.
External Recoveries
External Recoveries are the revenues associated with doing work for other agencies such as other levels of government and the school boards. The largest of the recoveries are work the City performs for Halton Region followed by services performed for other municipalities.
The city receives funding from other area municipalities, school boards, other levels of government and agencies.
Recoveries from the Region of Halton and Other Municipalities
The City receives funding to recover the costs of expenditures incurred on jointly procured projects with other municipalities or for work performed on their assets.
The largest of these recoveries are received from the Region of Halton for water and wastewater works and our neighbouring municipalities of Oakville and Hamilton for work performed on boundary roads.
This will be followed by an article on where the money that comes in is spent.
