Opinion – Is respect a two-way street?

Every year in August, the City of Burlington mails us a copy of the “City Talk” magazine. The magazine contains sixteen pages of “News from your municipal government”. Page 14 shows us the “Budget Projections as of July 15, 2025”.

This paragraph accompanies the chart.

When I read this statement, I walk away thinking that the total tax increase for the city, the region, and the Board of Education is 4.5 per cent, and the city is increasing taxes by 3 per cent. Not bad, right? We have great services; 3% is a little more than the rate of inflation. Go Burlington!

Take a minute and look at the chart, you can see the 2026 budget increase for Burlington is 5.8%.

A 5.8% budget increase is not the same as “the City of Burlington share of the total tax increase being less than 3 per cent”.

What is the city doing?

The last column shows us “The forecasted increase in the amount you will pay in taxes, from 2025 to 2026, as a percent”. We can see that the budget is increasing by 5.8%. The budget increase has to be funded, and property taxes are the main way the city funds the budget. In previous years, the city has talked about the impact of the increase, using Halton’s lower increase and education’s zero per cent increase to make Burlington’s large increase look smaller. This year’s presentation of the “Tax Increase”, the column on the far right, doesn’t bother with any of that confusing wording.

After all, who looks at their tax bill? If the chart shows a 2.98% increase on the Burlington line, that must be the increase, right? No – The Burlington budget is increasing 5.8%, and the Burlington line on our tax bill will increase by 5.8%.

Look at the dollar values on the Burlington line, a $28.96 increase over last year’s $499.11, works out to a 5.8% increase, not the 2.98% circled above.

The Halton calculation has the same issue. A $14.70 increase over last year’s $153 works out to a 4.6% increase, not 1.51%.

What is the “City of Burlington‘s share of the total tax increase”?

Let’s look at the increase dollar values from the chart, the second last column.

The total bill for the home assessed at $100,000 is going up $43.66. Burlington’s budget increase is responsible for $28.96 of that increase, or 66.37%.

Halton’s share of the total tax increase is 33.63%,

What is the city trying to tell us with “a little less than 3 per cent”? Maybe the city can explain this using established mathematical principles and plain language that we can all understand.

Until then, the Focus Burlington team is respectfully requesting that the city stop talking about “a little less than 3 per cent” and start talking about the 5.8% budget increase and the 5.8% increase we can look forward to on the Burlington line of our tax bills.

What can you do?

1 – Fill out our quick survey on the 2026 Budget

2026 Budget Survey

2 – Participate in one of the city’s budget events.

Ask for an explanation of this confusing presentation of the property tax increase.

Ask where the money is going; a 5.8% increase brings in over $15 million in new revenue. The details of the budget won’t be released until after the public engagement sessions are finished.

• Food for Feedback event on Sept. 13 at Central Park (2331 New St.), from 12 – 4 p.m. 
• six in-person budget townhalls, led by Mayor Meed Ward, with participating Ward Councillors and city staff:
  • Sept. 18, 2025 – Haber Community Centre (Community Room 1), 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 6 
  • Sept. 22, 2025 – LaSalle Pavilion (Main Ballroom), 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 1 
  • Sept. 23, 2025 – Burlington Seniors’ Centre (Community Room 3), 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 2  
  • Sept. 24, 2025 – Brant Hills Community Centre (Community Room 1) 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 3 
  • Sept. 29, 2025 – Tansley Woods Community Centre (Community Room 1), 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 4  
  • Oct. 2, 2025 – Appleby Ice Centre (Community Room 1), 7-8:30 p.m. – Ward 5 
• a telephone town hall on Nov. 5, from 7 – 8:30 p.m. 

Watch how last year’s 7.5% increase was explained away as a 3.79% impact.