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City politicians voted Thursday to have staff study potentially cutting by half the funding for London’s capital grants program, even after emotional pleas from community groups whose leaders say they need the financial help.
The tense debate – based on a proposal from a tax-cut working group started by Mayor Josh Morgan – ended with politicians voting 9-5 to direct city staff to come back with a report outlining the potential funding reduction, which would save $250,000 annually.
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“To lay the burden of (spending) reductions at the feet of community organizations who every day deliver demonstrable community benefit is simply not fair,” Pillar Nonprofit CEO Maureen Cassidy, a former city councillor, said as she addressed politicians.
“To label the work done . . . as ‘nice to have’ is a mischaracterization.”
Officials with the London Environmental Network and Growing Chefs Ontario also spoke out against moving a step closer to the cuts.
David Ferreira, Hadleigh McAlister, Skylar Franke, Sam Trosow and Anna Hopkins voted against asking staff to study cutting the grants by half. Steve Hillier was absent, all others were in support.
A similar motion – to have staff look into cutting the Neighbourhood Decision Making Program in favour of something smaller – lost to a tie vote. The neighbourhood program funds citizen-submitted projects in five parts of London, for a total of $250,000 annually.
Cutting the capital grants program by 50 per cent would save a total of $250,000 per year, money that would go to local organizations to help bankroll capital projects and innovation.
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“We have to maintain the funding as it is,” McAlister said. “I see so much value in terms of what non-profits bring to my community. I think the return-on-investment is pretty much indescribable.”
The mayor created a new panel of city politicians, dubbed the strategic opportunities review working group, to discuss ways to find municipal savings following approval of a four-year budget that includes relatively large tax hikes each year.
But cutting the two programs debated on Thursday would result in a tiny annual tax savings of 0.1 per cent from 2025-27. City hall’s annual budget is $1.3 billion.
Londoners were hit with an 8.7 per cent tax hike in 2024. Here is what they should expect in the next three years:
- 2025: 8.7 per cent
- 2026: 5.7 per cent
- 2027: 6.7 per cent
City staff will now study the implications of cutting the $500,000 capital grants program by half. It will next come before politicians in the fall when the mayor presents his annual budget update.
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