{"id":25420,"date":"2019-12-18T19:01:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T00:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25420"},"modified":"2020-01-02T18:03:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T23:03:21","slug":"average-aurora-tax-bills-to-rise-a-combined-rate-of-2-5-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/average-aurora-tax-bills-to-rise-a-combined-rate-of-2-5-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Average Aurora tax bills to rise a combined rate of 2.5% in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Average Aurora\nhomeowners can expect to see a tax increase of $158 to their tax bills in the\nyear ahead, following Council\u2019s approval of the 2020 Operating Budget last\nweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday night,\nCouncil approved a 3.4 per cent increase on the municipal portion of your tax\nbill. Factoring an anticipated tax increase on the Regional portion of the tax\nbill, along with no change to the education component of the bill, residents\ncan anticipate a combined tax increase of 2.5 per cent in the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council\u2019s approval of\nthe 2020 Operating Budget went hand-in-hand with the approval of a multiyear\nbudget, which has tentatively pegged municipal tax increases at a further 3.4\nper cent in 2021 and 2.9 per cent in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local lawmakers began\nbudget talks this fall looking at a target budget increase of 1.9 per cent on\nthe municipal portion of the tax bill, plus a further 1 per cent for \u201cfiscal\nstrategies to reduce the town\u2019s reliance on unsustainable revenues\u201d by adding\nto reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An additional 0.5 per\ncent tax rate increase was considered for 2020 and 2021 to support debt\nincurred in the anticipated redevelopment of Library Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am proud that staff\nand Council were able to work collaboratively to produce a budget that\nmaintains the excellent level of service that the Town provides to our\nresidents while remaining fiscally responsible,\u201d said Mayor Tom Mrakas in a\nstatement following last week\u2019s meeting. \u201cThe Town of Aurora joins a select\ngroup of Ontario municipalities who have approved a multi-year operating\nbudget. Through our approval of future year budgets, we\u2019re able to more\neffectively manage the Town\u2019s operating budget impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken down further,\nthe Town\u2019s portion of the residential tax bill includes funding for not only Town\noperations, but also the Aurora Public Library and Central York Fire Services,\nthe fire department serving both Aurora and Newmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouncil approved\nretail water rates of $2.41, $2.45 and $2.48 per cubic metre, wastewater rates\nof $3.11, $3.11, and $3.15 per cubic metre and a flat rate stormwater charge of\n$7.09, $8.01, and $9.32 per unit per month for residential and condominium\nproperties and $90.07, $101.73, and $118.31 per unit per month for metered\nnon-residential commercial\/industrial and multi-residential\nproperties for 2020, 2021 and 2022,\u201d noted the Town. \u201cEach new rate will become\neffective on all billings issued by the Town after April 30 of each year and\nwill be retroactive for the entire billing period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the budget,\nthe total required investment to make Library Square a reality is estimated to\nbe $47.9 million with the use of debt being a source of funding, according to\nJason Gaertner, Manager, Financial Management for the Town of Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to\nLibrary Square, the Aurora Cultural Centre has accounted for increased\noperating pressures in each of the next three years, totalling $67,000, $19,000\nand $21,400 respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these budget\nincreases have been covered out of the operating budget of Library Square,\nthere is uncertainty ahead as the Aurora Cultural Centre \u2013 as well as the\nAurora Museum & Archives \u2013 will have to vacate their home at 22 Church\nStreet during Library Square construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges currently\nfaced by the Cultural Centre include staff salaries and accounting for\ncost-of-living increases, as well as a downturn in revenues previously realized\nthrough facility rentals, a change which Executive Director chalked up to a\n\u201cshift\u201d in markets at the last Budget Committee meeting prior to last week\u2019s\napproval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe market pressures\u2026we actually had a loss in the revenue side of things, so the rental program helps to underwrite our costs so we can deliver our programs and when you lose revenue on that program, there isn\u2019t another place necessarily to find that funding,\u201d Ms. Haines told Council. \u201cThe grant we get from the Town doesn\u2019t fully cover our staff salaries, so we have a lot of pressure around the salary piece and we include that COLA increase in the increase to 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Average Aurora homeowners can expect to see a tax increase of $158 to their tax bills in the year ahead, following Council\u2019s approval of the 2020 Operating Budget last week. On Tuesday night, Council approved a 3.4 per cent increase on the municipal portion of your tax bill. Factoring an anticipated tax increase on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25420","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\/p3D2k4-6C0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 13:53:48","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\/25420","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=25420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}