EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally ran on Jan. 24, 2025. It has been updated to correct the recorded vote on the motion to direct city staff to find further savings in the 2025 budget. The vote of Ward 7 Coun. Esther Pauls was not originally included. We regret any inconvenience caused by the error.
With final budget discussions looming, Hamilton city council this week lowered the proposed municipal property tax increase again to 5.7 per cent.
The estimated property tax increase started at 6.7 per cent, before dropping down to 6.3 per cent.
The city’s general manager of finance, Mike Zegarac, told the General Issues Committee (GIC) Thursday that city staff proposed a few additional cuts to the 2025 tax-supported budget.
The city looked at leftover funds from previous projects that could be repurposed, totalling $6.9 million and made adjustments to spending on the city’s upcoming cybersecurity work.
Two city staff positions with Healthy and Safe Communities, as part of a pilot project, will be funded through reserves and not through the city’s tax-supported budget, saving an additional $209,000.
Public works and transit staff found an additional $970,000 in savings by deferring investments and upgrades to the 2026 budget.
In total, the city found around $8,078,000 in savings, lowering the property tax rate to 5.7 per cent – just slightly lower than the property tax increase in 2024, which saw residents paying an additional $286.
Budget discussions continue next week, with presentations from Hamilton Police, the Hamilton and Halton conservation authorities and the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Motion to find additional savings defeated
One Hamilton councillor says the number needs to drop again, to meet the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 3.44 per cent.
Ward 5 Coun. Matt Francis raised a motion asking city staff to find additional savings – enough to bring the property tax increase down to meet the rate of inflation, at 3.44 per cent.
Ward 8 Coun. John-Paul Danko said he agrees staff should look for additional savings, but lowering the property tax rate by an additional 2.26 per cent would mean finding $27 million to cut from the budget “without impacting city services.”
Cutting that much from the budget, he noted, would likely mean going into the city’s reserves, which is already a concern.
Ward 15 Coun. Ted McMeekin said he was okay with further review of the budget, but doesn’t expect staff to make many adjustments.
“My understanding is that the current budget that’s before us is already staff’s best effort to identify efficiencies and this work has essentially already been done,” he said.
“Fifty per cent of all new funding has to be cut to meet this target,” Ward 13 Coun. Alex Wilson. “We have a responsibility to deal with the facts in front of us that are in this presentation.”
The motion failed 8-7.
How they voted
