The Lame Duck Rules in Place Before the October Election Prevent City Council From Putting Forward a New Budget: Thank Goodness for that

By Pepper Parr

July 4^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

There is some good news in the tax increase projections.

The current council cannot increase taxes.  Tax increases will be made by the Council that is elected on October 26^th, 2026.

Tax increases have grown in the last two terms of the current City Council; the cumulative growth exceeding 40%.  These are numbers that are not sustainable.

And yet the increases that are on the table range from 5.% to 7.3%

City Staff provided council with a preliminary financial outlook for the City’s 2027 budget and to identify key economic and financial factors that may influence the overall tax increase required to maintain existing service levels and advance Council priorities.  To reduce the tax burden, service levels are going to have to be reduced; not something City Council wants to talk about.

This forecast is preliminary in nature and will continue to be refined through the 2027 budget development process. The higher range includes increasing the City’s contribution to capital reserves to help reduce the projected $350 million infrastructure deficit over the next 10 years as identified in the City’s 2025 Asset Management Plan update.

That infrastructure deficit is due to the fact that the Council in place at the time did not set aside the sums that were needed to keep the infrastructure up to date.  You are now paying for the mistakes made by the council that has been in place for the last eight years.

Every Council since 2010 has flubbed on setting aside funds for catching up on the cost of maintaining the infrastructure.

When the provincial government told Burlington that the was going to get an addition to the Joseph Brant HOspital thay added that we would have to put up a third of the clst – even though helath is a provincial matter.

An architect’s rendering of the new entrance to the Joseph Brant Hospital.  The citizens of Burlington paid for one third of the cost to build – that included a new parking garage just to the west of the hospital.

Nevertheless, there was a special levy put in place to pay for the hospital.  When that had been paid for, did the city stop collecting the levy?  Not a chance – when municipal finance people get their hands on some of your money – they don’t know how to give it back to you.

That hospital levy was rolled over into becoming a new infrastructure levy.

At some point there has to be a deep study on just how the city is handling the infrastructure deficit.

What’s really cheeky is that two members of the current council think they can do a better job and replace Mayor Meed Ward.

Councillor Bentivegna, who is not running for Mayor, is on record as saying he voted against the Council budget seven out of eight occasions.

So no one is to blame?

The last two lines are both misleading and classic disinformation. The city knows better; the Chief Financial Officer, Craig Millar should be both ashamed and embarrassed for putting numbers out like this

Craig Millar should be both ashamed and embarrassed for putting numbers out like this.

This Council has yet to learn that they cannot continue to baffle the public with misinformation.

The City collects the Regional taxes and the School Board taxes.  That is what they do – just collects the money and passes it along.

But they have this slimy little trick of telling people that when you add all three taxes together- municipal, regional and school board the level is lower.

City Council is responsible for one level of taxation.  What the city receives and what it spends.

Council passed a motion to direct finance staff to report back with a range of additional taxing scenarios and any impacts those scenarios would have on existing commitments, community services or the capital levy of 2% to achieve these reductions.

The scenarios are:

No more than inflation

A zero % increase

Remember this when you prepare to cast your vote next October.