2024 Budget

Nov. 28, 2023— At today’s Special Council Meeting, Burlington City Council finalized the 2024 budget. Next year’s budget is focused on essentials, front line services and preparing for growth.

The City’s portion of the overall tax increase is 4.99%. When blended with Halton Region’s forecasted increase and no change to the Boards of Education, this results in an overall tax increase of 6.68%. This translates to $57.53 increase per $100,000 of urban residential assessment.

The property tax bill is made up of three portions, the City of Burlington (50.5%), Halton Region (32.8%), and the Boards of Education (16.7%).

The 2024 budget has been broken down into three categories:

1. Essentials – This area covers projects and items the City of Burlington must address and/or have already committed to, such as cost of inflation, necessary capital projects and infrastructure renewal.
2. Frontline Service – This area covers enhanced services that directly improves the quality of life of Burlington residents.
3. Planning for Growth – This area plans for and prepares for the expected increase in population, our Community Investment Plan, and allow us to catch up and prepare for the future.

This was the first budget under the new provincially legislated Strong Mayor Powers. The Mayor proposed the budget for 2024. The budget was based on the 2024 Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast Reference Document prepared by staff earlier this year.

Council brought 62 changes through amendment motions to modify the budget. Of those amendments, 27 were adopted into the budget. These were presented at Committee meetings on Nov. 21 and 23 and the Special Council Meeting on Nov. 28. The budget was finalized at the Special Council Meeting on Nov. 28.

Key investments

• Enhancing frontline service delivery with additional transit operators, firefighters, by-law licensing clerks and customer experience staff to respond to your concerns
• Funding for 3 new community facilities – Skyway Community Centre, the newly renovated Mountainside pool and the former Robert Bateman High School
• $88.6 million of capital investment in 2024 to keep our infrastructure assets like buildings, roads and parks in a state of good repair
• Funding dedicated to future land and facility needs for our growing and changing community
• Free all-day transit for Seniors
• Support for our Community Planning Housing Initiative
• Support to bring the city’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure into the 21^st century

The City of Burlington has an approved 2024 Budget. Council brought forward 62 proposed amendments to the budget – a culmination of cuts, neutral motions, and additions. A total of 27 were approved that brought the tax impact for the City portion of your property tax bill to 4.99%. When combined with the forecasted increases of Halton Region (1.69%) and Education (0%), the total increase to your property tax bill is 6.68%. In real dollars, this translates to an approximate $57.53 increase per $100,000 of an urban home’s current residential value assessment.

At the end of the day, this is a Mayor and Council budget that is based on community feedback and guidance from City staff.

We understand these are difficult times for everyone with increased living and housing costs. The Mayor’s initial budget reduced the proposed tax impact by 1% from the initial recommended rate proposed by City staff in their 2024 Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast Reference Document. Council made difficult budget decisions, listening to those in the community and trying to balance the asks to cut City services to reduce taxes and the calls to increase taxes to maintain or enhance services. We have seen what happens in communities around us that do not invest enough in infrastructure or services: crumbling roads, closed community centres, and more. This budget plans for the short and long term to ensure we are investing in infrastructure and the services our residents expect.

Burlington’s 2024 Budget is a “needs-to-have” budget that focuses on essentials, frontline services, and planning for growth. The City is not immune to inflation, and the construction price index has gone up 41% since 2017. That makes existing and future contracts more expensive, as we strive to keep Burlington in a state of good repair.
Tax increases are not easy, particularly at a time when many are struggling to meet day-to-day costs. To respond to these concerns, Council tripled our investment in the City’s property tax rebate program, and asked staff to review income and age eligibility beyond seniors, so all low-income homeowners can be eligible. We will get further information on a new program in the New Year.

We also heard from the community their concerns about this year’s and future years’ tax increases. Under new Provincial legislation, the Mayor is required to present an annual budget, but can also issue directions for staff on a number of matters, including the tax rate. We want to work with Council, staff and the community and hear their thoughts on setting a proposed tax rate for the 2025 and 2026 budgets with our initial proposal being at 2.99% for City services, with an additional separate infrastructure levy at 1%.

We recognize the 2024 City and overall tax increase is unusual, and more than what many residents were asking for. City Hall is not immune to the challenges being faced by our community and delaying these much-needed investments in order to reduce this year’s tax increase would be a disservice and for some City services, such as road repair, would cost up to 10 times more if they are not made early enough. This budget continues to build on investments in capital and services our community has asked for and needs, and will serve to improve Burlington today and into the future.

Sincerely,
Marianne Meed Ward

Deputy Mayor for Strategy & Budgets Mayor, City of Burlington Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman

Thank you to everyone who participated in the November 7 budget telephone town hall. The transcript and recording is now available.

This year’s budget process has changed with the introduction of the Strong Mayors legislation from the Province of Ontario.

What this means is that it is the responsibility of the Mayor to propose the budget. Each year, staff will present a Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast for her to use as reference. Basically, there are two main documents:

1. The Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast is prepared by staff and is informative. The Mayor will use this document to create the Proposed Budget.
2. The Proposed Budget is put forward by the Mayor and presented to Council annually. Council and delegations may review and comment on the proposed budget. Once council has reviewed this budget, a final budget will be adopted and implemented by staff

The 2024 Budget is underway.

View the 2024 Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast Book

Read the multi-year simulation

Read the online survey results

Read the Mayor's Proposed budget

Burlington 2024 Proposed Budget Telephone Townhall

Hosted by Mayor Marianne Meed Ward on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward will host a telephone townhall to talk about the budget and hear your questions about budget priorities for 2024. She will be joined by Finance and other Senior staff.

How to Participate
Burlington residential phone numbers will be randomly selected to be part of the telephone town hall. If you would like your number to be added to the call out list or the do not call list, please email getinvolved@burlington.ca. by 1pm Nov 7. If you have asked to be on these lists for any previous town halls, we still have your selection and you do not need to email.

Join by telephone: If you happen to miss the call, you can call 1-800-785-1654 during the event time to join the town hall. For those individuals calling in, please be advised more than one attempt may be required due to the high volume of traffic on the phone lines. If the first call does not connect, please hang up and dial the 1-800 number again. You will be able to ask questions live via this method.

Work has started on the City of Burlington’s 2024 budget. As part of this annual work, residents and business owners are asked to share their feedback on City services that matter most. This feedback is presented to City Council to help them prioritize projects and services.

The survey is open until Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.

More information about the budget and how it is prepared is shared in 2024 Budget Framework Report presented to Committee on June 26, 2023.

Quick Facts

Key meeting and planning dates for the 2024 budget are:

June 26, 2023 - Budget Framework Report 2024 Budget Framework Report presented to Committee.

Open until Sept 22, 2023 - Budget Survey

Oct. 30 at 9:30 a.m. Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee: Overview of proposed 2024 Budget

Nov. 7 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. - Telephone Budget Town Hall
To discuss the proposed 2024 budget and take questions from residents.

Nov. 21 & 23 at 9:30 a.m.
Review and approval of proposed 2024 Budget, including delegations from the public.

Dec. 12 at 9:30 a.m.
Meeting of Burlington City Council: City Council to consider approval of proposed 2024 Budget

Register to delegate (speak at the meeting) by 12:00 noon the the day before each scheduled meeting.