Here we go again

By Eric Stern

July 3rd, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Eric Stern and the BRAG organization did everything they could to get 2025 budget information earlier so that citizens could make comments and delegate.

Here we go again. The City of Burlington plans to increase spending by 5.8% in the 2026 Budget

Keep 5.8% in mind. This is how the city is positioning the increase

“Burlington’s portion of the overall increase would be 2.98%”.

Let’s call this Burlington Speak math or BS math. Spending is increasing 5.8% but the “overall increase” is 2.98%, exactly how does BS math work?

Well, if you assume that the region won’t be increasing taxes, and the police won’t be increasing taxes, and the Board of Education won’t be increasing taxes, then the math works.

Have a look at this spreadsheet showing taxes for an average home in Burlington.

How likely is it that Halton won’t be increasing taxes, not likely at all, ditto for the police. The Ford government has held Education increases to zero for the last few years.

Here are some quotes from the city’s document on the city website.

“The Region’s 2025 Budget (Regional report FN-34-24) included a forecasted increase of 3% excluding police services and 4.3% including police services.”

What? The 2.98% overall increase is calculated assuming zero percent increases from the region and police, but the same document says to expect budget increases from the region and police!

“CPI rose 1.7% year-over-year in May, matching April’s increase.”

The city is increasing spending at over 3 times the rate of inflation.

“A 1.75% base funding increase is planned for Local Boards and Partnered Corporations in 2026 (Burlington Public Library, Burlington Museums, Art Gallery of Burlington, The Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC), and Burlington Economic Development and Tourism).”

How is it that the libraries, museums, art galleries, etc., can manage with a 1.75% increase, but the city needs 5.8%?

The city will bombard us with a series of numbers. The other number you’ll hear is 4.4%. Halton hasn’t issued any guidance on its tax increase. The police have not issued a statement. But Burlington, for unknown reasons, has guessed that the Halton increase, including the police increase, will be 4.3%. In my opinion, when you mix this all together, you get a projected overall increase of 4.4%. Last year, these guesses were incorrect, and we ended up with a higher increase.

New homes and businesses, through property taxes, are expected to cover .75% of the budget increase.

Buckle up, this is the multi-year forecast for spending increases.

Do taxpayers deserve an explanation as to why we’ll hear all about the overall impact of the increase being 2.98% and next to nothing about the budget increasing by 5.8%?

References:

https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=88865

https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=88866

Eric Stern is a Burlington resident who was part of the Burlington Residents’ Action Group ( BRAG) that was recently dissolved.  He is one of the leaders of Focus Burlington.