Article content
Two city politicians want their colleagues to pull $3 million from municipal savings to slightly reduce the relatively large tax increases that will hit Londoners over the next three years.
The push, by Coun. Jerry Pribil and Coun. Corrine Rahman, may be a long shot – city council shot down a similar motion this spring – but it underscores the apparent concerns about taxpayer unhappiness over the big spending hikes that loom in 2025, 2026 and 2027.
The looming tax hikes facing London property owners are:
- 2025: 8.7 per cent
- 2026: 5.7 per cent
- 2027: 6.7 per cent
That followed a 2024 tax hike of 8.7 per cent, largely driven by huge jumps in police spending over the four-year budget crafted by Mayor Josh Morgan.
Article content
The new motion proposes pulling $1 million from a city reserve fund each year from 2025-27. This amount would cut next year’s property tax increase by 0.13 per cent (from 8.7 to below 8.6), which Pribil acknowledges isn’t much.
“It’s not a huge amount but it’s a start. And we need to start somewhere,” said Pribil, who sits on a committee started by the mayor to find budget savings. “You have to work very, very hard to get these rates down.
“We have to be very creative and think outside the box (about) how we address this as a city because these tax increases are not sustainable for many Londoners. It’s a big issue.”
But this proposal may be a longshot. Rahman previously proposed using a sliver of city hall’s $31-million budget surplus to hold down 2025-27 tax hikes. Her push was defeated 9-5, with Rahman, Pribil, David Ferreira, Susan Stevenson and Sam Trosow voting in favour; all others were opposed.
$7 million of that surplus was added to city hall’s community investment reserve fund, the same fund Pribil and Rahman are now proposing council pull from over the next three years. The motion will go before council’s corporate services committee this Wednesday before a final vote by full city council on Aug. 27.
Share this article in your social network
