It’s that time of year when the city budget is up for approval. Next week, budget deliberations will officially kick off, as council decides what the city will spend its dollars on in 2025.
In preparation, City Hall has released their draft of the budget and they’re proposing a 4.99% net levy increase.
“This equates to an estimated increase on the City portion of the bill for the average residential home valued at $278,000 of $86,” City Hall writes.
With a proposed 4.99 per cent tax increase the city is already doing better than the region who recently approved a 9.6 per cent tax increase in their 2025 budget.
To meet their target, Thorold City Hall has an extensive list of projects they’re looking to defer to next year and beyond. The projects up for deferral include the reconstruction of Pine Street ($1.2M), the replacement of a fire pumper truck ($1.4M), McMillan building upgrades ($1.5M) and a Freightliner tanker replacement ($0.7M).
“The inclusion of these items on the list does not mean that staff believe that the items are not important,” writes City Hall. “The deferral of capital works may result in further deterioration of the asset, and a more costly repair in the future, and the deferral of operational items will impact upon service levels.”
On to the good news then. The capital budget identifies a handful of new projects the city would like to complete in 2025, with a total approximate value of $11.42M.
On the list are the reconstruction of Sullivan Ave and Clairmont St ($3M), the construction of a fire training facility at Fire Station 4 ($1M). The city also wants to further the Thorold Museum and Cultural Centre project ($0.7M) and they’re looking to replace the public works road equipment ($1.2M).
Then there are the projects the city is carrying forward from last year, including the reconstruction of St. David’s Road ($5.9M), the construction of the new mausoleum at Lakeview Cemetery ($3M), and the construction of Rolling Meadows Park ($2M).
The total value of the projects to be completed in 2025 is estimated at approximately $36.73M.
Meanwhile, “the Operating Budget, as presented, provides for gross operating expenditures of $38.4 million, an increase of 9.4%, or $3.3 million over last year’s expenditures," writes City Hall.
While the city went on a hiring spree last year, City Hall is only asking for two new staff positions this time round: a By-law Enforcement Clerk and a Fire Prevention Officer. Both these positions would be funded through the city’s Residential Licensing program.
Now it is up to council to make changes to the budget as they see fit. Budget deliberations kick off in council chambers on Tuesday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m.