Halton Hills approves town’s 2021 budget

The Town of Halton Hills approved the 2021 budget in a recent Budget Committee meeting.

As approved in Monday night’s Budget Committee meeting, residents can expect to see a $118 increase in their property taxes for 2021, a figure based on the 3.9% tax increase approval using MPAC’s 2016 Current Value Assessment (CVA) of $623,500 for the average residential property in Halton Hills.

The decision will be ratified at Town Council next week.

When combined with the forecasted tax changes, the local tax increase of 3.9% is expected to result in a final blended tax rate increase of 2.4% when combined with the forecasted tax changes.

These tax changes will be made at the Halton Region and school board levels.

Following Acting CAO and Commissioner of Corporate Services, Chris Mills, a presentation was made by Town Treasurer Moya Leighton.

“Despite challenges of having the lowest assessment growth in three years, a 46% increase in insurance premiums and lower user fee revenues, Town staff has been successful in presenting a budget that recognizes Council’s priorities, preserves cash flow and advances key initiatives.”

Additionally, it was noted that impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic would be tracked outside of the budget and the municipality would also leverage all available funding from the provincial and federal governments.

The Town will continue to shift to changes accordingly, reduce costs where possible to match changes in revenues and defer the capital program to manage cash flows and draw on reserves to fund shortfalls and/or cash flow interruptions through the year.

“I recognize that this has been a challenging year with the impacts of COVID-19 adding an additional layer of pressure,” said Mayor Rick Bonnette.

“I am very pleased with the work that the staff has done to put forward a realistic and reasonable budget that meets the needs of this community. I know that when Vision Georgetown comes online, we will realize much-needed assessment growth and be in an even better position moving forward.”