{"id":23402,"date":"2019-04-04T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23402"},"modified":"2019-04-11T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T00:42:16","slug":"aurora-tax-bills-set-to-rise-3-1-per-cent-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-tax-bills-set-to-rise-3-1-per-cent-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora tax bills set to rise 3.1 per cent in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budget numbers are in, and the average Aurora\nhomeowner can expect to see their tax bills increase by $202.28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council approved the Town\u2019s Operating, Capital and Water\nbudgets last Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the municipal portion of your tax bill, residents can\nexpect to see a rise of 3.3 per cent, which breaks down to an increase pegged\nat 2.3 per cent inflation, plus a further one per cent for fiscal strategies\n(infusion to reserves) to address infrastructure and other issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This 3.3 per cent increase translates to an increase of\n$79.71 on the municipal portion of the tax bill for the average home assessed\nat $800,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town\u2019s portion of the total tax bill includes funding\nfor the Town, the Aurora Public Library and the Central York Fire Services, as\nwell as contributions to infrastructure rehabilitation and replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, the Town\u2019s portion of your tax bill is only one\ncomponent impacting your bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When tax increases at the Regional level, as well as a\nstatic contribution to education are included, residents will face an overall\ntax increase of 3.1 per cent, representing a $202.28 increase to the average\n$800,000 property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am proud that staff and Council were able to work\ncollaboratively to produce a budget that maintains the excellent level of\nservice the Town provides to our residents while remaining fiscally\nresponsible,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas following last week\u2019s Council meeting.\n\u201cThis budget also represents the first year of our phase-in for operating costs\nrelated to the new Library Square and I am thrilled we\u2019ve been able to\naccommodate that exciting project with minimal impact to taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the 2019 Operating Budget includes the first of a\nthree-year phase-in of operating costs related to Library Square, along with\ncontributions to infrastructure, the final phase-in of increased costs for\nwaste management related to the Town\u2019s contract with Green for Life (GFL), and\nthe continued reduction of the Town\u2019s reliance on development-driven revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was costs related to the new Library Square\nredevelopment which garnered the most chatter at last week\u2019s Council meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am going to be voting against the majority of this\njust as a kind of bookmark in terms of expressing my desire, as I have\nexpressed before, for more information to satisfy myself and my comfort level\nmoving forward,\u201d said Councillor John Gallo, echoing his opposition expressed\nat the previous week\u2019s Special Council Meeting on Library Square towards the\nfinancial plan approved by Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gallo said at the time he wanted further\ninformation on the money the Town can expect to receive from government\npartners on the Federal and Provincial Level before approving the full Library\nSquare price tag, but this information will not be available until Spring at\nthe earliest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Councillor Gallo said he was looking\nforward to beginning work on the Town\u2019s Finance Advisory Committee (FAC) in the\nmonths ahead, alongside Mayor Mrakas and Councillor Michael Thompson, which\nwill help steer the budget process going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am looking forward to working with yourself and\nCouncillor Thompson at the FAC,\u201d replied Mayor Mrakas. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to\nmake some great strides in improving our policies and procedures and I am quite\nexcited about it \u2013 as much as people can be excited about a budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar sentiments were offered by Councillor Thompson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like to show my appreciation to staff and all\nmembers of Council for the time and effort put in to both the development of\nthe budget as well as the discussions to get us to this point this evening,\u201d he\nsaid. I think a lot of work has gone into it. I know there were some concerns\nexpressed going through the process about ways to improve and I look forward to\nhaving that conversation at FAC on an ongoing basis, but I do want to recognize\nthe work and efforts that went into the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full operating budget was approved at a cost of $67.5\nmillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, the 2019 Capital Budget includes a number of\nbig ticket items which will take a step forward this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the projects are the Town\u2019s new Strategic Asset\nManagement Policy, the 10-Year Capital Investment Plan, all going towards the\nfull capital budget of $60,563,760. This number includes $10.5 million for the\nrepair and replacement of existing infrastructure, $49 million for growth and\nnew capital, and $980,000 for studies and other projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individually, a further $410,000 has been earmarked for a\nnew pumper truck for the Central York Fire Services, $9.4 million for a new\ngymnasium at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, $1 million for the\nreconstruction of Vandorf Sideroad (Monkman Crescent & Carisbrooke Circle),\n$600,000 for the water meter replacement program, $250,000 to resurface the\nparking lot at Sheppard\u2019s Bush Conservation Area and $50,000 for backup\ngenerators for emergency evacuation centres.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The budget numbers are in, and the average Aurora homeowner can expect to see their tax bills increase by $202.28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-65s","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 22:35:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}