Peterborough adopts ‘course-correction’ 2024 budget with 7% all-inclusive tax rate

Peterborough tax payers will see a seven per cent all-inclusive tax rate after city council approved and adopted the 2024 municipal budget on Monday night.

It’s one of the largest tax increases in recent years. The budget was initially proposed at 9.59 per cent and then was reduced to 7.38 per cent. However, through a series of budget deliberations, staff and council were able to reduce the rate to seven per cent following a series of late recommendations.

Among them are increasing transit fares (to generate an additional $100,000), using $200,000 in casino gaming reserve, and $1.3 million from the Legacy Fund Income Reserve (revenue from the $56.7-million sale of Peterborough Distribution to Hydro One), deferring a $150,000 environmental assessment project on Sherbrooke Street, and creating a new service fee for sewer lateral rodding (unplugging sanitary sewer lines) on private property to generate $85,000 a year in revenue.

The budget will also increase the tax ratio for commercial and industrial property classes to 1.65. The city says it will shift approximately $3 million of the net tax requirement away from the residential property taxpayers — a move businesses said they opposed.

2:01 Peterborough city council approves 2024 budget with 7 per cent all-inclusive rate

Coun. Keith Riel says the rate reduction of nearly three percentage points provides “some relief.”

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“I’m not trying to rob the reserves,” he said. “I understand what they’re there for, but I think it’s a relief of some sort for the taxpayers of Peterborough.”

However, Coun. Lesley Parnell warned against dipping into the city’s reserve funds. Council did amend a motion to ensure drawing on the Legacy Fund reserve is not an annual occurrence.

“It’s a little bit ironic that people who fought like heck against the LegacyFund are just having a great old time spending the money,” she said.

Coun. Andrew Beamer, chair of the city’s finance committee, calls the budget a “course-correction budget,” noting how the city is falling behind on infrastructure and services.

“We are falling behind on infrastructure, we are falling behind on roads,” he said. “We are falling behind on keeping the community safe; we are falling behind on homelessness.”

For households, it will mean an additional $122.02 annually per $100,000 of property assessment — or $10.17 per month.

“We do need to make key strategic improvements in the community to ensure that we are not falling behind and that we are moving forward,” Beamer said. “This has to be a one-time budget situation. This can’t become the norm. We need to work together for a more manageable budget next year.”

The 2024 budget has $359 million in operating expenses, with $171.9 million from property taxes and the remainder funded by other revenues such as grants from other governments, user fees, and service charges.

According to the city, nearly 25 per cent of the municipal portion of taxes goes to external organizations including (based on cost per $100,000 of residential assessment):

• Peterborough Police Service $271.47 — The Police Services Board 2024 request of over $35 million was 15.3 per cent, or $4,651,318, higher than 2023.
• Peterborough Paramedics $49.39 — The city’s portion for 2024 has been budgeted at $6.4 million or a 4.1 per cent increase.
• Peterborough Public Health $14.23 — The city’s contribution is the health unit’s requested amount of $1,780,741, an increase of 15.5 per cent.
• Fairhaven Long-Term Care $12.74 — The budget provides $1,882,250 for the facility — up 1.5 per cent.
• Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development $7.86 — The city’s share of core funding for 2024 is $1,015,112 along with $226,021 for physician recruitment.
• Otonabee Conservation $6.62 — The 2024 budgeted contribution is $855,118, which represents a 2.9 per cent increase.
• Peterborough Humane Society $3.54 — The 2024 budget is $457,060 — up 0.5 per cent to 2023.
• Downtown Business Improvement Area $1.37 — The 2024 budget provides $351,500 — a 3.02 per cent increase over 2024.
• Greater Peterborough Innovation Cluster $1.13 — The budget approved $146,393 — up 1.5 per cent

Beamer says that moving forward, council aims to be in a better financial position next year.

“It is important to emphasize this course-correction budget must be a one-time measure. This can’t become the norm. The residents can’t afford multiple years of seven per cent tax increases,” he said.

— with files from Robert Lothian/Global News Peterborough

2:07 Peterborough business community fears strain of higher tax ratio

• Peterborough business community fears strain of higher tax ratio
• Peterborough makes cuts to historically high proposed tax rate increase
• Peterborough 2024 draft budget shows potential for heavy rate increase
• Peterborough Police Services Board requests 15.3% budget increase
• Peterborough police chief says 11.7% budget hike needed to ‘just keep the lights on’
• Peterborough city council faces higher costs for 2024 budget

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