St. Catharines Council is setting up a dedicated fund to help residents who can't afford their property tax increases.
Councillors voted last night to create a special Tax Mitigation Fund, which will collect funds from city staff positions that were budgeted for, but haven't yet been filled.
“With the creation of a special Tax Mitigation Fund, Council and the City are committed to assisting our residents, our taxpayers, as we prepare for the financial challenges ahead,” said Mayor Mat Siscoe, following a meeting of Council Monday.
“We plan to continue to not only identify but implement strategies to enhance our budget process and further explore opportunities to mitigate the impact of our municipal budget on our taxpayers.”
Moving forward the City also plans to better align the City and Regional budget processes to ensure factors of affordability are taken into consideration during both budget deliberations.
“The City recognizes the budget decisions we make, and the financial challenges we face, impact not only our municipal operations but also affordability for our taxpayers,” said Chief Administrative Officer David Oakes.
“Staff will work with the Region over the coming months to identify opportunities to improve the two tiers budget process and enhance public understanding of how these two levels of government budgets are integrated.”