Last week City Council adopted an operating budget for 2015 that kept spending flat and saw the property tax of 1.9 percent for an average single-family home in the city, which is less than the Canadian rate of inflation, which is 2.4 percent.
“We have again contained costs while maintaining our services,” Mayor Anthony Housefather said. “This is the ninth consecutive year where the tax increase was at or below the rate of inflation.”
The Côte Saint-Luc City Council adopted the $66.67 million operating budget on December 15, 2014. About 42.3 percent of all taxes collected by Côte Saint-Luc are transferred to the island-wide regional government, which funds services such as police, fire, and public transit.
The property tax bills will be sent to homes by January 28, 2015. The deadline to pay property taxes has been set at February 27 for the first installment and May 28 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 2 percent – with a decrease in water tax rate – below the cost of living,” said Councillor Steven Erdelyi, the council member responsible for finances.
Budget and tax highlights include the following:
- Average increase in taxes for single-family home valued at $572,300: 1.9 percent
- Decrease in water, residential and non-residential tax rates
- Increase in revenues from taxation: 1.12 percent
- Revenues from property taxes: 85.2 percent
- Revenues from compensation in lieu of taxes: 1.9 percent
- Other revenues (eg, program fees, memberships, etc.): 12.8 percent
The three-year capital expenditures plan was also adopted on December 15. Approximately $13 million in capital expenses is anticipated in 2015.
What I continue to find astounding is the fact when we adopt this budget each year, there are virtually no citizens in the audience to ask questions. This year there was on resident on hand and he wanted to know about the CSL Tennis Club. Not even our traditional council regulars Irving Itman and Bernard Tonchin, affectionately known as The Sunshine Boys, were in attendance. This can mean only one thing: the people in Côte Saint-Luc have full confidence in the way we manage our finances.
Ruth Kleinman
Hats off to Treasurer Ruth Kleinman, City Manager Tanya Abramovitch, Assistant City Manager Nadia Di Furia and the rest of the management team for a job well done!
Not only do I have full confidence in the mayor council and city administration but at the time of the meeting I was in sunny Toronto so hats off to all of you happy Hanukkah and happy holidays to the city staff good health and happiness in the new year To all Regards from one half of the sunshine boys,Irving