Opinion – Burlington’s 2026 Budget: Where is the money going?

The city’s budget, at 572 pages, is long and confusing. Trying to determine where the tax increase is going is a challenge, but a pattern emerged, and we decided to take a deeper dive into where the additional tax dollars are going

This is what the city tells us in the budget book.

When I first saw the city’s pyramid chart, during a budget Town Hall, I thought that staff salary increases were part of the inflation block and were being limited to 2%. If you do some quick math, the Burlington line on our tax bill is going up 5.8%, close enough to 6%, and the city is telling us that 2% of that or one third is for inflation (33%), 2% or that or one third is for infrastructure (33%), and close to 2% is for other things (33%).

Using details available in the full budget book, we found that the average salary increase for a full-time employee will be 5.17% (2026). We were also able to calculate that 57.4% of the tax increase is being used to pay for increases in salaries and benefits.

We took the city’s pyramid chart, shown above, and used it to show how every new dollar will be spent. The picture looks like this.

Next, we used the details in the budget to show how every new dollar will be spent. The picture looks like this.

Our chart, based on the numbers shown in the budget, is very different from the city’s. This is not entirely surprising when you consider the city tells us, on page 23, that a 5.8% property tax increase is 2.98% “CITY OF BURLINGTON’S SHARE OF THE TOTAL TAX INCREASE”. The Burlington line on our tax bill will increase by 5.8%.

How many new employees is the city adding?

Page 44 shows us that 14 new full-time employees are being added, and the number of part-time positions is being reduced by 4.2.

Page 44 shows us how many people work for the city.

This is a moderate increase in the budgeted number of people working for the city, more or less in line with the revenue growth from new homes. New homes mean more revenue, but the people who live in those homes pay taxes and expect services from the city.

Now, let’s look at the average pay increase across the entire city for full-time employees only.

We can see that the average salary increase for a full-time employee at the City of Burlington from 2025 to 2026 is 5.17%. With almost 1,200 full-time people, adding 14 has very little impact on the average increase.

The average salary for a full-time city employee, before benefit costs, will be $106,556.35.

As discussed above, 57% of the city’s revenue increase, largely funded by property taxes, will be used to pay for increased HR costs. By comparison, Oakville’s increase for HR in 2026, per their draft budget, is 4%.

Here are the details from a couple of departments.

Customer Experience, with a small reduction in headcount, will see an 8.6% increase in salaries, wages and benefits. Community Services Admin will also see an 8.6% increase. Our mayor and council are planning a 4.8% increase for themselves in 2026.

Here are the revenue numbers as shown on page 42 of the 2026 Budget.

On the first line, we can see that the expected 5.8% property tax increase to existing home owners, combined with property tax revenue from new homes and businesses, is expected to increase property tax revenue by 6.76%.

The province requires the city to have a balanced operating budget where revenue covers expenses.

Revenues are up 5.38% and expenses are up 5.38%.

This chart shows changes by expenditure category. The last column, the % of the total change, is calculated using the $ Change column and the total change value of $19,772,000.

Without the vast resources of the city, this is the best pyramid chart we could come up with.

Here is the city’s chart for one last look.

Is the city’s presentation meaningful or misleading?

Should the Town Hall meetings have included a discussion on salaries and justified the 5.17% average increase? Is it time for city workers to have salary increases in line with the private sector?

Burlington residents deserve transparency, accountability, and real engagement.