London city councillors set to discuss potential tax increase at Tuesday meeting

City politicians will be exploring ways to stave off a potential tax hike for London taxpayers on Tuesday evening.

Councillors will meet as the strategic priorities and policy committee to look into a report from London city hall that says taxpayers could see a four per cent tax hike in 2020.

A four per cent tax hike would mean an extra $114 for the average London homeowner with a home assessed at $241,000.

That would be a significant increase from the target of 2.7 per cent set earlier this year.

London city council was hoping to achieve an annual tax increase of 2.7 per cent over the multi-year budget period between 2020 and 2023. However, as it currently stands, that annual increase is sitting at 3.2 per cent.

Earlier this year, the provincial government announced its plans to shift certain provincially funded duties onto local governments in hopes of lowering Ontario’s debt.

“The downloading has been a factor on municipalities, but it’s also been a factor on our agencies, boards and commissions,” said Ward 7 Coun. Josh Morgan, who also serves as the city’s budget chair.

The report states that provincial downloading in 2020 will add 1.4 per cent to the city budget.

The 14 agencies, boards and commissions that submit a budget to city hall were given a target of increasing their budget by no more than 1.5 per cent, however only three were able to meet that target.

“The unfortunate news is almost all of them have come in beyond the target, which has really pushed potential tax increase up beyond what council was aiming for,” said Morgan.

Tuesday’s special meeting will be held to discuss the report and next steps. Actual budget discussions aren’t scheduled until Dec. 9.

At the meeting, staff will recommend council ask all agencies, boards and commissions to provide a list of possible cuts to bring their budgets closer to the target of 1.5 per cent.