Swallowing a pill or biting a bullet? Draft tax increase sits at 10%

The 2024 budget is by no means finalized, but so far it is set to increase the tax rate by 10 per cent next year.

Budget deliberations began with an estimated 8.27 per cent increase to the tax rate, based on a 10.54 per cent increase to the tax levy.

After two full-day finance and labour relations committee meetings, council has gone through the operational budgets, capital forecasts, and expansion requests of all departments in the City of Stratford.

After going through expansion requests, nearly all of which were approved, that brought the tax rate up by 9.98 per cent, based on a levy increase of 12.46 per cent.

Coun. Cody Sebben, who doggedly made motion after motion to strike items off of the capital forecast and expansion requests – most of which failed – said that increase is unacceptable.

“We're pushing people into a place where they (are in) need or pushing people over the edge that are in need,” he said.

Coun. Bonnie Henderson was sympathetic.

“This is a hard bullet to bite,” Henderson acknowledged. “Over this next year, before September, we need to really think about if there's other avenues or grants or anything we can do to help mitigate some of these costs, because it's a lot.”

Sebben made a motion to send the budget back to staff to look for further efficiencies to bring down that figure, a motion he tried to make last year as well. That motion was defeated.

Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach argued that compared to other municipalities, the figure that Stratford arrived at is not dissimilar, though certainly it is their goal to get it as low as it responsibly can be.

“I would agree a 9.98 per cent increase is tough to swallow,” Mayor Martin Ritsma said. “But we have a lot on our plate that wasn't there before – to this magnitude. And I think a lot of communities, a lot of municipalities across Ontario are struggling with the same and having the same conversation.”

He suggested that council take a look at user fees when they next reconvene. Either they raise user fees or cut services to mitigate the increase for taxpayers.

Henderson advocated for contacting Premier Doug Ford and local MPP Matthew Rae, pointing out that because of the diminishing of development charges, it has directly impacted the tax rate.

“We can’t afford it,” Henderson said. “We need development charges to run our city.”

Karmen Krueger, director of corporate services and city treasurer, noted that $350,000 has been lost due to that provincial action affecting development charges.

Council voted to send a letter to the MPP explaining how much taxes are set to raise in Stratford. It will reconvene in the new year to discuss the budget.

Expansions Approved

Nearly all of the expansion requests made by city staff were approved.

Split into two halves, service enhancements and staffing enhancements, the only service request not approved was the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, an $80,000 expansion that was deemed unnecessary for this year.

The plan was deferred to 2025, though Tim Wolfe, director of community services, and Adam Betteridge, director of building and planning services, both said that the plan is important for both of their departments.

Notably, a $150,000 investment to Destination Stratford was made, though only half of that will affect the levy.

Council approved using $75,000 of the newly acquired Municipal Accomodations Tax (MAT) funds to go to Destination Stratford. That is nearly all of the funds so far acquired from the tax, which only started in July of this year.

On the staffing side, all new staff positions were approved but the climate change coordinator, which was deferred to next year’s budget.

The approved service expansion requests, and their costs, are: