{"id":35420,"date":"2024-11-14T15:09:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T20:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=35420"},"modified":"2024-11-14T15:09:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T20:09:04","slug":"budget-deliberations-begin-this-week-following-presentation-to-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/budget-deliberations-begin-this-week-following-presentation-to-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget deliberations begin this week following presentation to Council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Deliberations over the 2025 municipal budget began in earnest this week following a formal presentation to Council on November 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Tom Mrakas officially tabled Aurora\u2019s 2025 Budget at last week\u2019s Committee of the Whole meeting, a presentation which is under the Mayor\u2019s purview following the granting of Strong Mayor powers from the Provincial Government last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his remarks, he said all Council members will have the opportunity to propose amendments to the Budget which, he added, \u201cis a critical part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look forward to the feedback and I am committed to working collaboratively with Council to ensure this budget works in the best interests of all Aurorans and we can continue to get things done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Auroran reported in October, Aurora residents are poised to see a 3.5 per cent tax increase on the municipal portion of the tax bill in the year ahead, and 2.9 per cent in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This tax increase, said Mayor Mrakas, will \u201cmaintain all service levels and strategic investments in key areas that will sustain the very high quality of life Aurora has become known for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reality, and I know many of my colleagues know this as well, is that many people in our community continue to feel financially strained and it is extremely important to keep this tax increase as low as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is why I am very pleased we kept the inflationary part of the tax levy lower than the Consumer Price Index and we will continue to strive to keep the Levy in line or below the level of inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImportantly, it enables us to continue supporting Central York Fire Services and other important community partners, including the Aurora Public Library, the Aurora Cultural Centre, Sport Aurora and the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame \u2013 organizations that all significantly improve the lives of our community members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Budget for the year ahead will see a number of items in the Aurora\u2019s 10-Year Capital Plan move forward, which the Mayor said will \u201csignificantly strengthen our community as we continue to grow\u201d and will serve as \u201cprojects that truly help build a complete community where everyone can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These items include projects to modernize municipal facilities, redeveloping playgrounds, improving tennis and pickleball courts in parks, technology upgrades to make online tax and water billing possible, and new traffic calming and pedestrian crossing studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will make immediate improvements to local infrastructure, including numerous roads, stormwater ponds, sewers and pumping stations, projects that keep Aurorans healthy and moving and that also ensures we\u2019re climate resilient,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas. \u201cAt a time when we really do need to play our part in addressing the housing crisis, we will continue working on initiatives that help get more housing built in our community by developing tools like the Community Planning Permit that streamlines zoning and approval processes to accommodate our projected growth while still allowing us to maintain our built and natural heritage. This budget is a result of tremendous amount of teamwork with staff, elected officials, residents and businesses all providing input on priorities during our pre-budget consultations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unpacking more of the Budget at the Committee level, Town Treasurer Rachel Wainwright-van Kessel said the Town\u2019s gross expenditure for the year ahead is $125.9 million, and $130.1 million 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora\u2019s share of every one dollar on the tax bill, she said, is 38 cents, with the lion\u2019s share going to the Region of York and 18 cents to education. The quarterly water bill, she noted, is expected to rise by $19.62 per household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInflation is starting to temper a bit and it\u2019s beginning to balance out a little bit,\u201d said Wainwright-van Kessel. \u201cPart of the challenge is we\u2019re still seeing some significant inflationary impacts on some of our multi-year operating contracts and the reason for that is we have had contracts that have been in place for five years. These were set at 2019 pricing. Prior to that rapid inflation we have seen\u2026 we are still seeing some of the impacts of that happening, particularly in the Operational Services department and some of the roads and streetlight services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional challenges, she added, come from uncertainty over the amount of development charges (DCs) the Town will be able to bring in \u2013 that is, money paid by incoming developers to the Town to account for future growth needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe latest development charge study, recognizing that some of these projects have a significant benefit to the existing community so they can not all be paid for through growth means. That means we need either another source of funding, whether it be tax levy source reserves or possible grants,\u201d she said, citing, among other projects, pedestrian underpasses at Cousins Drive, on Yonge Street north of St. John\u2019s, and parking projects in the Aurora Promenade area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to be seeking opportunities for grants to pay for the Town\u2019s portion of this \u2013 the non-growth\u2026 to support the development of many of these projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Deliberations over the 2025 municipal budget began in earnest this week following a formal presentation to Council on November 5. Mayor Tom Mrakas officially tabled Aurora\u2019s 2025 Budget at last week\u2019s Committee of the Whole meeting, a presentation which is under the Mayor\u2019s purview following the granting of Strong Mayor powers from the Provincial Government […]<\/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-35420","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\/p3D2k4-9di","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 12:34:21","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\/35420","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=35420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35421,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35420\/revisions\/35421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}