Burlington sets tax rate. Find how much you will pay in 2023

Burlington City councillors have delivered on a promise: You are going to pay more in property tax this year than you have in the past.

After months of justifying the need to hike taxes to pay for new services and infrastructure, Burlington has approved its anticipated tax increase of 6.34 per cent. Combined with the Halton Region and local school board portions of your tax bill the increase will jump to 7.08 per cent.

What this means is that taxes will rise approximately $60.31 per $100,000 of a residential property’s current value assessment.

To compare, an average Burlington home assessed at $500,000 will see an annual increase of $301.55 or $5.80 per week.

With the tax increase comes the approval of Burlington’s budget which will see$314.3 million in operating expenses this year as well as an additional $72.6 million for capital projects.

What ratepayers will get for this amount is paying the salaries of City workers as well as providing for the upkeep of a multitude of services such as transit, park maintenance, recreational programs, road repairs as well as fire protection.

New initiatives that these Burlington tax dollars will bring include:

• Funding for two new community centres – Skyway Community Centre located at 129 Kenwood Ave. and the former Robert Bateman High School at 5151 New St.
• Cycling infrastructure
• New automated speed reduction program to help address local traffic concerns
• Free transit for youth (ages 13-19) on evenings and weekends

“There is no question this budget presented a challenge to staff, Council and residents, but it also presented a clear opportunity to make our city better – not just for the next few years, but for future generations,” said Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. “The 2023 Budget makes key investments that respond directly to requests from residents about what their priorities are. We recognize these will vary – one person’s ‘need-to-have’ may be another person’s ‘nice-to-have’. We take all input from the community in investing in services that serve all our residents.”

Paul Sharman, Ward 5 Councillor and Deputy Mayor for Strategy and Budgets, said the 2023 budget represents “crucial investments” that will benefit the community now and in the future while delivering services that the public is asking for.

“We are also playing catch-up after years of underfunding in community needs, as well as increasing services for new residents – recognizing that population growth never fully pays for growth,” Sharman said.