{"id":33979,"date":"2023-12-21T12:02:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T17:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33979"},"modified":"2024-01-04T18:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T23:33:58","slug":"residents-can-expect-3-8-municipal-tax-increase-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/residents-can-expect-3-8-municipal-tax-increase-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents can expect 3.8% municipal tax increase in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora residents can expect to see a 3.8 per cent increase on the municipal portion of their tax bill in the year ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council formally adopted the 2024 Budget last week, one which will translate into a $92.15 increase for a home assessed at $800,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement following the December 19 Council meeting, Mayor Tom Mrakas said he was \u201cproud\u201d of the Budget as it \u201cresponded to the needs of the community\u201d both today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt responds to the needs of the community and makes investments in our future while not overburdening residents and businesses who have seen their own costs go up, from groceries, to gas, to mortgage payments,\u201d he said. \u201cThe moderate increase to your tax bill is about the same as the overall inflation rate in 2023 and allows the Town to push ahead on key priorities that matter to residents, including rehabilitating and maintaining our roads and sidewalks, strengthening our world-class recreation programs, parks and natural spaces, as well as enhancing our arts and culture offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour tax dollars are also working to support Town partners that provide important and essential services to the community, including Central York Fire Services, the Aurora Public Library, and the Aurora Cultural Centre. I thank residents, business owners, staff, partners and, of course, my Council colleagues for working collaboratively on the budget to ensure it works in the best interests of all Aurorans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 3.8 per cent increase breaks down to a 2.8 per cent increase for municipal services and initiatives, with an additional 1 per cent allocated for capital infrastructure projects \u2013 including Aurora Town Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key investments outlined by the Town include road reconstruction and rehabilitation on Poplar Crescent, Avondale Crescent, Centre Street, and Earl Stewart Drive; the ongoing construction of the 7,500 square foot gymnasium at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, playground replacements at Fleury Park, Evans Park and Town Park, and the construction of a second artificial turf field at Sheppard\u2019s Bush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOperating spending in 2024 amounts to a total of $118.6 million, which is supported by both property taxes and user rates (water, wastewater, and stormwater),\u201d the Town added. \u201cThe Town\u2019s 10-year Capital Plan (2024 to 2033) amounts to a total of $304.2 million, with $65.4m set aside in 2024. The 2024 to 2026 Budget includes tax increases of 3.5 per cent in 2025 and 2.9 per cent in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Budget process was significantly different from years past with the introduction of Strong Mayor powers in several communities across Ontario, including Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the Budget is presented to Council by the Mayor with the Ward Councillors able to suggest amendments, which may or may not be vetoed by the Head of Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to some fraught debates among lawmakers as Mayor Mrakas declined to put into the Budget the salary increases Council approved for themselves on a 4 \u2013 3 vote earlier this fall. Mayoral vetoes on the budget nixed reducing funding for the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame and delaying some hires for the operation of Aurora Town Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This staffing matter related to Town Square was a hot-button topic at the last Council meeting of 2023, with Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland bringing forward a motion calling on Council to override the veto, which needs a vote of two-thirds of members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the question was there were five staff who were being requested to be hired and that Town Square was expected to have a delayed spring opening,\u201d said Councillor Gilliland, who added she discussed it with the Director in question who said a delay was okay. \u201cWe already do have five full-time staff for Town Square, one of them being Customer Service, and through my amendment it was really just to have transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposing the motion for a veto override was Ward 4 Councillor Michael Thompson who said municipal CAO Doug Nadorozny and his team \u201chave used good judgement\u201d thus far when it comes to hires and he trusted their judgement here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, the motion borders on micromanaging of staff and I am not supportive of that,\u201d said Councillor Thompson. \u201cI think that as long as staff continue to exercise good judgement, we should trust our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas was of a similar viewpoint, stating he did not want to \u201chandcuff staff\u201d on their hiring processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have the ability to look at this and if there needs to be a delay in the hirings they can make that decision,\u201d he said. \u201cI trust our expert staff in making that evaluation. They have shown time and time again that they can make that evaluation, but if we need to hire earlier\u2026and they can\u2019t, that does undermine the possibility of the successes of the opening of the biggest investment we have made in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although she described Town Square as \u201cthe white elephant project in the community,\u201d Councillor Gilliland said she thought \u201cTown Square is going to do just fine\u201d if the motion to delay the hires was passed. With anticipated operations increasing to $1.2 million per year, up from $720,000, she said doing so could save \u201cat least a minimum of $40,000 on average per month on extra staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an area where we can at least set a tone,\u201d she contended. \u201cThat\u2019s really what I am trying to achieve here and I don\u2019t see that there is any issue\u2026. The reality is everybody is okay with that. I don\u2019t know why we need to be voting against something that is so obviously not going to be something that is going to contribute to the failure of Aurora Town Square.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the motion received a majority of votes \u2013 4 \u2013 3, with Mayor Tom Mrakas, Councillor Thompson, and Ward 6 Councillor Harold Kim in the contrary \u2013 it did not meet the two-thirds majority threshold in order to pass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Aurora residents can expect to see a 3.8 per cent increase on the municipal portion of their tax bill in the year ahead. Council formally adopted the 2024 Budget last week, one which will translate into a $92.15 increase for a home assessed at $800,000. In a statement following the December 19 Council meeting, Mayor […]<\/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-33979","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\/p3D2k4-8Q3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-27 03:23:07","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\/33979","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=33979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}