Mayor Matt Brown speaking after the tabling of the 2016-2019 draft budget, January 11, 2015. Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com.Mayor Matt Brown speaking after the tabling of the 2016-2019 draft budget, January 11, 2015. Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com.
London

Tax Hike Between 2.6% to 3.1% Proposed

The average tax bill in London will be going up between $71 and $85 annually over the next four years.

City politicians got their first look at the draft 2016-2019 budget at a meeting at city hall Monday.

The city's first multi-year budget sets the base tax increase at an average of 2.6% each year, with the potential to climb as high as 3.1% depending on which strategic investment projects council agrees to move forward with.

All figures are based on a home valued at $221,000.

"We can nudge that number down a little bit for sure," says Councillor Josh Morgan, the mayor's special budget advisor. "You'll see two discussions happening. One is, can we dig into the core budget? What services are we going to exit from? What do we want to dig into to define savings? Then of course we have the strategic initiatives on top of that, of which we can control the pace, the timing, the scale, and there is a lot of flexibility around those.

There are 23 strategic investments totalling $53.1-million for council's consideration. Among them is the city's "back to the river project" at $5.3-million, the Dundas flex-street at $15.6-million, and the urban forest strategy at $3.4-million.

"We are going to pour through that document over the course of the next two months and we are going to look for those savings and efficiencies," says Mayor Matt Brown. "When we look out over the short, medium, and long term - and that's an ability that is afforded to us by a multi-year budget - we should be optimistic about finding savings. This is a billion dollar annual budget and it's reasonable for us to assume there are savings that can be found."

Brown stressed the importance of accepting a recommendation by the London Chamber of Commerce to keep annual tax hikes in line with the rate of inflation.

"We need to focus on affordable figures that ensure we are not kicking costs down the road, that we are not raiding reserves, and that we are looking for savings and efficiencies every single day," says Mayor Brown. "I agree that numbers at or around inflation is a reasonable target over the long term."

The 2016-2019 water and wastewater treatment budgets were also unvieled Monday. City Council approved the water and wastewater rates and charges on December 8, 2015 in keeping with the utilities’ long-term plans. The 3% increases effective January 1, translates into an approximate $24 increase for the average residential ratepayer consuming 165.4 m3 of water per year. Rate increases for 2017 to 2019 are projected to be 3%.

A motion by Morgan to add a second public participation meeting on the 2016-2019 draft budget was passed at Monday's meeting.

"There is a very short time line between the tabling of the budget today and the first public participation meeting," says Morgan. "I just thought it was important for us with such an important document like the multi-year. We need input not only at the start of the process but also as we go through the debate and start to conclude those discussions to have a check in with the public too."

Public participation meetings on the budget will be held January 21 and February 24.

The public will also be able to voice their thoughts and concerns on the new multi-year budget through an online budget simulator which allows the public to make and submit adjustments to the budget, then through two "build a budget workshops" scheduled for January 16 from 10am to 12pm and on January 20 from 6pm to 8pm at Goodwill Industries at 255 Horton St.

The final budget will be approved on March 19.

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