The City of Peterborough’s draft budget for 2024 proposes a substantial 9.59 per cent increase to the city’s all-inclusive rate, which includes the municipal property tax, education tax, and municipal storm and sanitary sewer surcharge rates.
City staff presented the draft budget to Peterborough city council during its finance committee meeting on Monday evening (November 6), in advance of a series of public meetings that will be held in November and December.
The 9.59 per cent increase is 6.44 per cent higher than the 3.15 per cent rate increase approved for the city’s 2023 budget, which was a quarter of a per cent higher than the 2.87 per cent rate increase in 2022.
A 9.59 per cent increase would add $167.17 per year for each $100,000 of residential assessment for the typical household. For example, a city household with a home assessed at $260,000 would pay an additional $434.61 annually.
In August, city council approved a rate increase guideline of between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent for the draft 2024 budget. While the budget was prepared with a 5.5 per cent increase, council-approved directions, external organization requests, and city service delivery enhancements totalling over $8 million have added another 4.09 per cent to that increase.
Council-approved directions contributing to the additional 9.59 per cent rate increase include over $2.96 million for compensation initiatives, around $575,000 for transit modifications, and around $388,000 for municipal law enforcement expansion.
External organization requests include an additional request of over $3.4 million for the Peterborough Police Service, around $69,000 for Peterborough Public Health, and around $96,000 for Peterborough County-City Paramedics.
City service delivery enhancements include around $69,000 for in-house snow removal at city-owned facilities, over $308,000 for generator maintenance, and almost $130,000 for a management position at Service Peterborough.
The draft 2024 budget includes $359 million in operating expenses — with $173.9 million from property taxes and the remainder funded by other revenues such as grants from other governments, user fees, and service charges — and $128.2 million in capital expenditures for 147 projects.
The draft budget also includes a number of spending cuts, an increase in revenue estimates, and use of reserves to reduce operating expenses by $2.5 million, partially offsetting the increases in other areas. The tax requirement for the capital budget was reduced by $11.9 million by delaying projects until future years, reducing investments in capital programs such as sidewalk installations, and the use of reserves.
As part of 405-page draft budget highlights document, city staff have provided city council with a large number of possible service cuts to reduce the tax requirement, including deferring hiring by-law officers, cutting operation of the Centennial Fountain in Little Lake, cutting the individual artist grant program and the public art program, removing lifeguards from city beaches, and closing directly operated child care.
The city is hosting a number of public meetings on the draft 2024 budget, including a public meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (November 9) at McDonnel Street Community Centre (577 McDonnel St.) and an informal drop-in from 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday, November 14th in the main foyer at City Hall (500 George St. N.), followed by a finance committee meeting at 6 p.m. with registered delegations presenting to council.
In addition to the public meetings, finance committee will hold a meeting on Wednesday, November 15th to hear presentations from invited local boards and agencies, and will review, discuss, and debate the draft budget from November 20 to 23. There will be no public delegations at these meetings.
City council is scheduled to consider approving the 2024 budget at its meeting on Monday, December 11th, where registered delegations can present to council.
For more information about the draft 2024 budget, visit peterborough.ca/budget.
