Region considering 5.8% tax hike

Niagara’s property taxes are poised to increase by almost six per cent this year, primarily fuelled by investments in regional transit and the increasing cost of police services.

Niagara Region financial management and planning director Helen Chamberlain, who will present the upper-tier municipality’s operating budget for consideration at Thursday night’s council meeting, said departments scaled back expenses significantly to keep cost increases to below two per cent.

But separate levies being added this year — including a $7.9million investment in regional transit, $900,000 earmarked for a waterfront improvement program and $250,000 to be invested in cultural programs — increase the operating budget by 4.7 per cent.

And when the Niagara Regional Police budget hike is factored in, it brings the Region’s total tax hike to 5.8 per cent.

If approved as is at the Feb. 28 council meeting, the tax hike will

mean the owner of an average home valued at $267,711 will pay $84 more on the Region portion of their annual tax bill.

“It’s not a small number,” said interim CAO Ron Tripp.

However, Tripp added, transit services are a “distinct new area of business for the Region and there needs to be a conscious financial but also philosophical choice.”

Councillors, he said, will need to determine “are we in the business of regional transit?”

“It comes down to money and what’s the appetite for council to move forward and raise rates and raise levies and invest the money that we need to. We really believe that we’re at that point right now,” Tripp said. “We really want to move forward with this process because there’s a lot of things we need to get done.”

Niagara treasurer Todd Harrison said councillors have shown overwhelming support for initiatives such as public transit, and “now that the rubber hits the road” he said he hopes that support will continue, although he suspects there could be some push-back.

While proceeding with investments locally, Harrison said he hopes discussions with upper-tier governments “will lead somewhere” in terms of added funding that could lessen the blow to local taxpayers.

Tripp said “it could ease this burden and offset some of what we incrementally have to spend.”