Current mayor Andrea Horwath has increased Hamilton’s city spending more in her first year as head of council than former mayor Fred Eisenberger (pictured here alongside Premier Doug Ford) did in his final four years in office. Photo credit: Premier of Ontario
The budget Hamilton City Council passed this spring, under the leadership of Mayor Andrea Horwath, clearly shows that there was a changing of the guard at city hall.
While former mayor Fred Eisenberger was known for his careful budgeting during his final term in office, stretching from 2018 to 2022, Horwath has taken the city in a different direction. She has increased Hamilton’s city spending more in her first year in office than Eisenberger did in his final four.
Budget 2019 was the first presented during Eisenberger’s final term in office. That budget placed city spending at $2.3 billion. Four years later, spending had increased to $2.4 billion. That means Eisenberger kept city hall’s spending hikes down to an average annual rate of 1.2 per cent.
Budget 2023 marks a new beginning. This spring, led by Horwath, Hamilton City Council passed a budget that increases city spending by eight per cent, far outpacing the level of inflation.
To pay for it, council also increased property taxes at a rate rarely seen since amalgamation in 2000: 5.85 per cent. By contrast, Eisenberger’s last four budgets saw property tax increases remain under 3.5 per cent annually, even during the inflation peak in 2022.
Eisenberger was careful to ensure city spending remained in check to minimize property tax hikes. Horwath has decided to move in a tax and spend direction.
One of the keys to Eisenberger’s budgeting successes actually has to do with a piece of legislation that Horwath voted against when she was then the leader of Ontario’s NDP official Opposition at Queen’s Park.
In 2019, the Ford government passed the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, which allowed Ontario municipalities the ability to offer procurement contracts to all firms through an open tender process, should they so choose.
Under previous legislation, most large municipalities were forced to limit tendering contracts to a small handful of unionized construction companies.
The legislation allowed cities like Hamilton the ability to end their closed tendering processes. Eisenberger led Hamilton City Council in opting out of the antiquated procurement process.
A report recently released by Cardus, a non-partisan thinktank, shows that since Hamilton changed its procurement process under Eisenberger’s leadership, the city is saving an average of 21 per cent on its infrastructure projects.
When the reform bill was passed in 2019, Horwath voted against it as leader of the NDP. But because Hamilton has already decided to go in the open procurement direction, she now runs a city that has embraced Ford’s reforms.
While the Ford government’s reforms might have helped Eisenberger keep Hamilton’s finances in check, Horwath is dramatically increasing spending in spite of these long-term savings.
This year’s budget increased spending by almost a quarter of a billion dollars. Much of that has to do with higher pay for city employees – a $45 million increase – as well as a 16 per cent increase in city vehicle expenses and a 30 per cent increase in spending on housing programs.
The mayor’s office has also seen its budget increase slightly, to over $1.2 million.
Councillors who voted in favour of the budget include Cameron Kroetsch, Maureen Wilson, Ted McMeekin, Alex Wilson, Esther Pauls, Nrinder Nann, Craig Cassar, John-Paul Danko and Tammy Hwang.
Councillors who voted against the budget include Brad Clark, Mike Spadafora, Jeff Beattie, Mark Tadeson, Matt Francis and Tom Jackson.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
