Tax hit from the city set at 5.45% increase over last year. Town Hall to hear from the public November 22nd

By Staff

October 25th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

Shaping Burlington’s 2022 budget: key meeting dates coming up, including a virtual town hall with Mayor Marianne Meed Ward on Nov. 22

Work to determine the 2022 budget continues. An overview of the budget will be presented to Burlington City Council at a virtual Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 3 at 9:30 a.m. The overview will include a look at the proposed 2022 operating budget as well as the 2022 capital budget and forecast.

Key areas of focus for the proposed 2022 budget
Each year, during the City’s budget process, decisions are made to ensure an appropriate balance between affordability, maintaining service levels and financial sustainability over the long term.

The proposed 2022 budget focuses on:

• Mitigating the financial impacts of COVID-19
• maintaining service levels
• ensuring city assets are maintained in a good state of repair
• continuing to provide strategic investments aligned to the City’s work plan, 2018 to 2022: Vision to Focus
• upholding legislative requirements while ensuring competitive property taxes.

City plans to add more bylaw enforcement officers.

Proposed capital budget
The proposed 2022 capital budget is $77.3 million, with a ten-year program of $829.5 million. From this total:

• 68.5% is for infrastructure renewal
• 15.1% goes towards growth-related projects
• 12.8% is for new/enhanced projects
• 3.6% goes towards green projects which support the City’s climate goals.

Proposed operating budget
The proposed 2022 operating budget is $284.8 million and includes new funding to support:

• Sustaining city services ($685,333)
  • Additional funding for on-going recreation facility maintenance to meet lifecycle requirements and reduce risk
  • One-time funding to support a Gypsy Moth spraying program in 2022
  • One-time funding to extend the contracts of two bylaw officers

• 

  Burlington Transit will want more buses to continue with the free for seniors service.

  Enhancing services ($199,130)

  • Funding to make the free transit for seniors pilot a permanent program
  • Operating expenses to support the new Orchard Community Hub

• Modifications to services to address COVID-19 ($332,733)
  • Funding to make the bus cleaning pilot program permanent
  • Dedicated operations space for building inspection and bylaw enforcement staff.

Proposed tax increase
This represents a 5.45% increase to the City’s portion of the tax bill.

When combined with the estimated regional and education tax levies, the overall projected tax increase for a Burlington homeowner in 2022 is 3.18% or $24.76 per $100,000 of assessment. For example, homeowners with a home assessed at $500,000 would pay an additional $123.80 per year or $2.38 per week.

A copy of the proposed budget for 2022 will be available online at burlington.ca/budget.

Pre Covid19 there were meetings with staff where questions could be asked. Now it’s all virtual.

Public Input

To gather feedback from residents about how municipal services are valued and which ones are a priority for residents, the City hosted an online budget survey from July 5 to Sept. 30, 2021, at getinvolvedburlington.ca. A total of 539 responses were received.

Survey results:

• 71.7% indicated they are satisfied with the services provided by the City of Burlington
• 64.5% rated the value they receive for their tax investment as good or very good
• 70.3% said it is important to them for funding to be put aside for infrastructure renewal
• 86.3% said it is important to them to set aside additional funding to address potential future emergencies like a pandemic or natural disaster.

Get Involved Burlington also features an interactive budget simulation tool where residents and taxpayers can show the City how they would balance the budget. Users can increase and decrease funding for different City service areas as they see fit while still maintaining a balanced budget.

Virtual 2022 Budget Town Hall – Nov. 22 at 7 p.m.
An additional opportunity for public input on the 2022 budget will be held on Monday, Nov. 22, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. during a virtual town hall hosted by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. The live, online meeting provides residents an opportunity to learn more and ask questions to City staff about the proposed 2022 budget priorities. More details about the link to join the virtual meeting will be available on getinvolvedburlington.ca in the coming days.

Marianne Meed Ward has never shied away from budget increases. Her approach reflects the Red Liberal in her.

 Mayor Marianne Meed Ward explains: “The budget process is one of the most important exercises the city undertakes each year.  Determining key spending priorities in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is challenging as COVID continues to present significant financial impacts.

“To assist City Council in the budget process, we want residents and taxpayers to share their input and tell us what services are important to them. Please join in the conversation at the Nov. 22 virtual town hall that I will be hosting. We know our citizens expect us to maintain a high quality of services as our city continues to grow and evolve and we want everyone to share their feedback with us, so we can continue to deliver on their expectations.”

Joan Ford knows her numbers inside out.  She gives council the facts and advice when they ask.  They don’t ask very often.

Joan Ford, Director of Finance gives her side of the budget story:  “The City’s annual budget process provides an opportunity to review existing operations and make investments in key City programs and services. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to provide significant financial challenges for the City, the 2022 budget process will focus on maintaining the city’s financial position, addressing corporate risks, and ensuring residents continue to receive the programs and services that provide a high quality of life in Burlington.”