Burlington Council Receives 2023 Proposed Budget Overview from Staff
At our Jan. 9 Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability (CSSRA) Committee meeting, we received an overview presentation from City staff on the 2023 proposed budget. At our Council meeting on Jan. 24, we unanimously approved the below motion:
- Receive the 2023 proposed budget book; and
- Direct the Chief Financial Officer to present the recommendations in Appendix A of finance department report F-01-23, to the Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee meetings of February 6, 7 and 9, 2023 for review and approval, taking into consideration committee amendments.
Below, please see links to the staff report, related appendices and presentation:
- Staff report: F-01-23 2023 Budget Overview
- Appendices:
- Staff presentation: F-01-23 2023 Budget Overview Staff Presentation
Staff are recommending an overall tax increase of 7.08% (including Region of Halton and Boards of Education). Of this 7.08%, Burlington’s portion of the overall increase is 5.90%. To view the proposed 2023 Burlington Budget book, please click or tap the link.MY TAKE:
There is no question this budget presents a challenge, but it also presents an opportunity to make our city better. We’re playing catch up on growth-related costs. Growth never pays for growth. And thanks to the Province's Bill 23, we heard from staff that with our 10-year capital budget, we’re looking at a $65-million hole -- that amounts to approximately $3 million per year.Listening and learning from the comments of this Council and what's important to them over the past term, has really started to change how I focus on our municipal budgets. City staff does a line-by-line review of our annual budgets even before presenting the proposed version to Council -- and in the past, I would start by looking at where we could find further savings. That led to some savings, but it also delayed some investments and here we are with this catch-up budget.My focus has changed. My approach now is to start by asking what is the community asking for and what to do we need?When I look at this budget, I don't know where we can responsibly cut from it. There are no "frills." There are no "nice-to-haves." Delaying anything in this budget, in this case, would be a disservice to the community because as we've seen on infrastructure, it costs 10 times more -- that's not prudent financing.This budget delivers on the services our community has asked for increases to: bylaw enforcement; animal control; coyote response; more planners to reduce processing times; and automated speed enforcement -- I heard that last one at every second door during the 2022 municipal election campaign.This is a community-facing, community-responsive budget, and it's a big one, but for a good reason. We have heard from you to invest in what our community needs.