Hello Ward 8 Neighbours,
City Council reduced and approved the City’s 2024 budget that will see a 5.8 per cent residential property tax increase, or about $286 more per household compared to last year – less than the 7.9% anticipated increase porposed at previous Council meetings.
For more details, please continue reading below….
Throughout the budget development process, Council and City staff looked for opportunities to reduce the burden on taxpayers by responsibly using reserves (savings), reviewing budgets for efficiencies, and prioritizing spending against Council Strategic Priorities.
The Budget continues the City’s commitment to sustainable economic and ecological development, safe and thriving neighbourhoods, and responsiveness and transparency. The following are some of the projects included in the 2024 Budget:
- Responding to the housing and homelessness crises with increased funding to support the construction of new affordable housing and shelter spaces and to develop a Winter Response Strategy and Food Strategy to support local food banks.
- Providing additional funding for tenant protection and sustain Housing Providers.
- Maintaining City assets and the services that matter most to residents while making crucial improvements to important programs like litter management.
- Enhancing levels of funding for public safety services, ensuring that Fire, EMS, and Police departments have the resources necessary to serve the community in a timely and effective manner.
- Investing in Hamilton’s transportation network, including roads, bridges, sidewalks, multi-use paths, and traffic management.
- Increasing and improving transit service frequency by adding an additional 49,000 hours of service.
- Preparing responsibly for climate change by investing in the City’s new Climate Change Reserve and various other initiatives such as greening the City’s Fleet, developing an urban forestry strategy, and planting trees.
- Investing in parks, recreation, and cultural assets.
- Improving customer service and digital technology and modernizing systems to better serve our diverse community.
Overall, the 2024 Budget represents an average property tax increase of 5.79% as follows:
- 1.64% (avg. of $84 per household) increase related to the cost of City services.
- 1.60% (avg. of $77 per household) increase for new investments in housing and homelessness.
- 2.55% (avg. of $125 per household) increase to account for the impacts of new provincial legislation that shifts infrastructure costs for new development from developers to City taxpayers.
Questions or concerns?
If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact our office here.