Proposed Kitchener budget includes 3.9 per cent tax increase

Kitchener City Hall is pictured in a file photo. (Kevin Doerr / CTV Kitchener)

The City of Kitchener is eyeing a 3.9 per cent property tax increase as part of its 2024 budget.

The proposed hike would see the average Kitchener homeowner pay an additional $47 on the city portion of their property tax bill. Staff are also proposing a 6.3 per cent increase to water utility fees, which would work out to an additional $77 for the average household.

Combined, the proposed tax and utility increases would cost the average home $124 more in 2024.

City staff presented the draft budget to councillors at a committee meeting on Monday.

“When you think about all the services the city provides, the fact we’ve been able to propose a 3.9 per cent increase while still maintaining existing service levels… I think speaks to the great staff and also just the process that we have in place and the decisions that have been made by council to put us in a strong financial position,” the city’s chief financial officer Jonathan Lautenbach told the meeting, noting the inflation rate has hovered around 4 per cent this year.

The draft budget allocates $40 million to road reconstruction projects, $19 million to build a new sewage pumping station in Hidden Valley area and $1.9 million to new neighbourhood parks, among other major capital projects. There’s also $94 million, to be spent across two years, on a new aquatics centre and indoor turf field at Schlegel Park.

Major capital projects proposed in 2024 are highlighted on this slide from city staff's budget presentation. (Council agenda package/City of Kitchener)

It also sets out $5.5 million in spending toward what the city calls “advanced strategic priorities.” That includes $1.2 million to the city’s Housing for All Strategy, $240,000 to launch additional special events, including “one new major festival in Kitchener in 2024,” $300,000 for improvements to the Walter Bean Trail, and $700,000 for continued work on the implementation of the downtown cycling grid.

Councillors Christine Michaud and Bil Ioannidis appeared to indicate they’d like to see the cycling grid spending scaled back. Council approved the multi-year project in 2020.

“We may have approved the cycling, but what I’m hearing from the community as a whole is we’ve gone way too far and where we’re lacking is in trails,” Ioannidis said. “I would love to see us pull back a little bit on that.”

Staff are proposing $5.5 million in spending on priorities aligned with the city's new strategic plan. (Council agenda package/City of Kitchener)

Staff have also built $1 million in unallocated funding into the draft budget. Residents can vote on how they’d like to see it spent here.

The property tax increase and city budget are set to be finalized by the end of December. A public input night is set for Nov. 27.

Only 31 cents of every dollar Kitchener residents pay in property tax goes to the City of Kitchener.

The Region of Waterloo, which makes up the majority of the property tax bill at 55 per cent, is eyeing an 8.6 per cent property tax increase.

Local school boards make up the remainder with 14 per cent.

A full overview of Kitchener's draft budget is available here.