Congratulations to Côte Saint-Luc City Councillor Dida Berku, Treasurer Ruth Kleinman, City Manager Tanya Abramovitch and their team for putting together a stellar 2014 budget.
Traditionally the budget is adopted in December. However, we cannot do so until the Agglomeration Council has gone through its process. That was delayed due to the November elections.
Our $65 million budget is significant in that the average increase in taxes for single family homes is 0.9 percent, equal the Canadian rate of inflation.
Councillor Berku has overseen each one of our budgets since we demerged from the Montreal mega city. That responsibility now transfers to Councillor Steven Erdelyi. As Mayor Anthony Housefather noted, the entire council had a hand in preparing this budget as we went through several drafts over the last few months. Since we all have portfolios, it was our responsibility to ensure our assigned areas were on the right course. Thanks to an excellent management team, we came through with flying colours.
The property tax bills will be sent to homes in mid-February. The deadline to pay property taxes has been set at March 28 for the first installment and June 27 for the second installment.
“As a responsible city administration sensitive to the financial constraints of our taxpayers we made every effort to meet our target and hold the tax increase to less than 1 percent – with no increase in water tax – all in line with the increase in the cost of living,” said Councillor Berku.
Budget and tax highlights include the following:
- Average increase in taxes for single-family home valued at $572,300: 0.9 percent
- No increase in water tax and non-residential tax
- Increase in revenues (due to growth in property roll): 1.46 percent
- Revenues from property taxes: 86 percent
- Revenues from local improvement taxes: 0.22 percent
- Revenues from compensation in lieu of taxes: 2.48 percent
- Other revenues (eg, program fees, memberships, etc.): 11.3 percent
I have included our powerpoint presentation which takes you through the budget highlights.