A 2025 Oakville budget calling for a 4.92 per cent property tax increase is now in the hands of Mayor Rob Burton.
After several months of discussion and deliberation, the town’s budget committee has recommended the budget to the mayor.
Thanks to strong mayor powers granted to him by the province, Burton can now make any changes he wants before presenting a final version to council next Thursday, December 5, 2024.
Public delegations are planned for the following Thursday, December 12, with final council consideration slated for Thursday, December 19.
What will the proposed budget cost you?
Residential properties will pay $834.98 for each $100,000 in assessment value. A house assessed at $800,000, will pay $6,680 in 2025, up from $6,367 this year.
That money will be divided up to cover your Oakville (43 per cent), Halton (38 per cent) and educational taxes (19 per cent).
Budget documents are posted on the town and regional websites.
Water and wastewater rates are also proposed to increase by 5.5 per cent in 2025.
What’s driving the increase?
Inflation has driven up salaries and benefits for town staff, as well as the cost of purchased materials and consulting services.
The town is facing additional expenses to run the newly built Sixteen Mile Sports Complex and library, hire eight new firefighters and introduce automated speed enforcement.
Spending on Halton cops has ballooned by at least 13.8 per cent – or $28 million. The police service’s 2025 budget of about $232 million will cover the cost of hiring 26 new police officers and 21 new civilian staff members.
At a Dec. 4 meeting, Halton regional councillors will consider a further increase to the police budget, to boost new officer hires to 38.
On the good news front, Oakville’s growth is helping to balance off the cost of providing new services. The town is expected to add about $4 million in new assessment growth to its property tax rolls, effectively decreasing the amount that needs to be covered by existing taxpayers.
Councillors have also added a $600,000 credit to the 2025 budget, to reflect efficiencies they expect town staff to find over the next two years.
The credit effectively lowers taxes in 2025 and 2026, the final two years for this term of council.
If staff are not able to find the necessary budget cuts, the credit will need to be repaid in 2027 -- the first year of the next term of council.
Other budget add-ins from town councillors:
- $310,000 for the Oakville Public Library, to provide funding for 66 hours of weekly service at the new Sixteen Mile branch, as provided at other branches
- $85,000 to provide free rides to users of the care-A-van service, which offers accessible transit services to anyone unable to use conventional transit due to a disability
- $60,000 to increase the town’s annual Heritage Grant to $180,000, providing additional funding for maintenance and renovation of designated heritage properties
- $75,000 to fund a traffic study to consider the permanent conversion of Bronte Road to a one-way street between Lakeshore Road and Marine Drive