Mayor Andrea Horwath and Councillor Danko touted the budget as a balance between reducing the increased tax burden on residents and making critical investments. Photo Credit: X/City of Hamilton.
Hamilton City Council gave final approval to the 2024 budget last Thursday, with taxes set to increase by 5.79 per cent.
The increase means that the average Hamilton household will be paying about $286 more in municipal taxes this year.
However, the 5.79 per cent tax increase only passed by a vote of 10-6, with six councillors opposing the budget, believing the tax burden on residents was too high.
Against the tax increase were Councillors Matt Francis (Ward 5 – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek), Tom Jackson (Ward 6 – East Mountain), Mark Tadeson (Ward 11 – Glanbrook-Binbrook-Mount Hope), Brad Clark (Ward 9 – Upper Stoney Creek), Jeff Beattie (Ward 10 – Stoney Creek-Fruitland-Winona), and Mike Spadafora (Ward 14 – West Mountain).
Mayor Andrea Horwath and Councillor Danko touted the budget as a balance between reducing the increased tax burden on residents and making critical investments.
Horwath noted in a press release that Council reduced what was originally supposed to be a 7.9 per cent tax increase (and before that even projected to be as high as 14.2 per cent).
“Despite challenges related to provincial downloading, economic pressures and rising costs, Council was able to lower the City’s portion of the budget to 3.24 per cent with an overall tax impact of 5.79 per cent,” said Horwath.
“Council was willing to have tough conversations and make difficult decisions, working with staff to address affordability for Hamiltonians while ensuring we invest in critical City programs and services. The 2024 budget manages the costs downloaded by the province, delivers responsible and sustainable enhancements, and maintains service excellence,” she continued.
Some political commentators have suggested that the practice of announcing a high tax increase only to cut it down is nothing more than political theatre in order to make the eventual number more palatable to the public.
Nevertheless, the city says that the 5.79 per cent property tax increase is broken down into three parts. Part one is a 1.64 per cent (average of $84 per household) to pay for city services; part two is a 1.60 per cent (average of $77 per household) increase to pay for new investments in housing and homelessness; and part three is a 2.55 per cent (average 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.”
As part of the budget, Council also approved an 8.41 per cent increase in funding for the Hamilton Police.
The police budget also passed on a 10-6 vote.
A city press release notes that some of the projects included in the 2024 budget are 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 “improving customer service and digital technology and modernizing systems to better serve” the community.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
