After three days of budget deliberations, Peterborough city council has provided a number of recommendations to trim the all-inclusive property tax rate to 7.38 per cent in 2024, down from the initial proposed rate of nearly 10 per cent.
City council’s finance committee wrapped up meetings on Wednesday after hearing submissions from the public this month on the municipal 2024 draft budget. The city started its budget process back in March. The initial budget presented on Nov. 6 proposed a 9.59 per cent all-inclusive rate.
The city says the 7.38 per cent rate is equivalent to $10.72-per-month or $128.65 for the year increase per $100,000 of property assessment.
The draft budget includes $359 million in operating expenses, with $173.9 million from property taxes and the remainder funded by other revenues such as grants from other governments, user fees, and service charges.
The city says among the recommendations which helped trim the property tax included:
- Increasing the tax ratio for commercial and industrial property classes to 1.65, which would shift approximately $3 million of the net tax requirement away from the residential property tax class
- Using $800,000 from the Legacy Fund Income Reserve – revenue generated from the investment of the principal amount received from sale of Peterborough Distribution Inc. to Hydro One
- Using $200,000 from the Casino Gaming Reserve – revenue that the city receives as a host community for Shorelines Casino Peterborough.
- Creating a new service fee for sewer lateral rodding – unplugging sanitary sewer lines – on private property at a rate of $250 during business hours and $350 during evenings and weekends, which would generate an estimated $85,000 a year in revenue
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Of the 147 capital works projects (totalling $128.2 million) include$10 million for the wastewater treatment plant, $9.42 million for work on Brealey Drive between Lansdowne and Sherbrooke streets and $5.5 million for pavement preservation work throughout the city.
Some other budget highlights include:
- Investments in housing and homelessness will increase by 22.5 per cent or $5.4 million in 2024 for a total of $29.4 million. Provincial and other sources of revenue for housing and homelessness will increase by 40 per cent or $4.6 million in 2024, resulting in a 5.7 per cent or $347,859 increase in the net requirement to the City. The city says housing and homelessness includes support for approximately 2,000 social housing units, rent supplements, the operation of four emergency shelters and winter overnight drop-in centre.
- Peterborough Transit will add six new positions in 2024, including four transit drivers.
- The city is adding five new municipal law enforcement positions and four new firefighter positions in 2024
- The city will launch a $50,000 graffiti management pilot program.
- Service grants will increase 1.5 per cent to certain community organizations compared to 2023 service grant amounts — an increase of $43,800 from what was included in the initial draft budget. The additional funding comes from the General Contingency.
Among projects deferred include:
- Deferred $226,021 which was allocated to physician recruitment in 2024 until a report is considered by city council in the second quarter of 2024.
- A $200,000 renovation to a city hall building.
- A $200,000 project to develop a Central Area Parking Strategy was removed, with the funding returned to the capital levy reserve fund.
Council is expected to consider approving the City of Peterborough 2024 Budget at its meeting on Dec. 11.
— More to come.
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