City of Cambridge starts 2025 budget talks with proposed 1.26 per cent tax hike

File photo. (CTV Kitchener)

The City of Cambridge is proposing a 1.26 per cent property tax increase in the first look at the budget for the upcoming year.

Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett presented the 2025 Strong Mayor Budget Monday evening. The plan proposes a 1.26 per cent tax increase to fund over 140 city services and introduce an infrastructure renewal levy to maintain city assets.

The proposed net tax levy increase adds up to $22 for the average household with a property assessment value of $341,000 or $6.45 per $100,000 of residential assessment value.

“This budget supports the services, programs, and facilities we enjoy as a community while also planning for the future and the betterment of our city,” Liggett said in a media release. “We have kept the struggles of taxpayers top of mind throughout this process and I am pleased to present a budget that balances the needs of the community with considerable economic pressures.”

Starting in July 2025, stormwater costs will move from property tax bills to water utility bills, based on individual property runoff, aiming to lower costs for residential homeowners, according to the city.

The city says this will be implemented in a phased approach, with 50 per cent of the costs retained in the 2025 budget and the full amount removed effective in the 2026 budget.

According to the report, if the stormwater rate had not been separated out, the increase would have been 3.68 per cent plus an additional one per cent infrastructure levy.

Key budget focuses include road and winter maintenance, parks, fire services, economic development and libraries. It also highlighted a one per cent infrastructure levy to maintain city assets and address the current funding gap over the next ten years.

Public feedback on the budget will be heard on November 7, both in person and virtually.