By Pepper Parr
October 25th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It is going to be a different budget because Mayor Meed Ward has Strong Mayor powers which means she is required to propose the budget for the municipality each year by February 1.
The head of council must share the proposed budget with each member of council and the municipal clerk, and make it available to the public. If the head of council does not propose the budget by February 1, council must prepare and adopt the budget.
This is the view the public gets when Council meets. The practice for Burlington is to make all meetings virtual events. This is your Council and no – they are not waving at you.
After receiving the proposed budget from the head of council, council can amend the proposed budget by passing a resolution within a 30-day review period.
The head of council then has 10 days from the end of the council review period to veto any council amendment.
To veto a council amendment, the head of council must provide written documentation of the veto and rationale to each member of council and the municipal clerk on the day of the veto.
Council then can override a head of council’s veto of a council amendment with a two-thirds majority vote, within a 15-day period, after the head of council’s veto period.
There are mechanisms in place to enable council and the head of council to shorten their respective review, veto and override periods. For example, council could pass a resolution to shorten their review and override period, and the head of council could provide written documentation to members of council and the municipal clerk to shorten the veto period.
At the end of this process, the resulting budget is adopted by the municipality.
That’s the complex schedule.
That document gets presented by Staff to Council on December 30th. It is described is as an “informative” document meant to inform the Mayor where spending should take place and where revenue is likely to come from.
A tax increase of close to 8% was being tossed around – the Mayor had said that she was thinking in terms of something less than that.
In the past year the city has borrowed $54 through this issuance of two debentures. The rate was above 5% for the most recent.
Related news stories;
How much has the city borrowed.
Mayor Meed Ward didn’t have to accept the Strong Mayors powers she was given on Canada Day
