Oshawa City Council has approved the 2020 city budget, which carries a 2.03 per cent rise in property tax.
The increase in the 2020 City Budget, approved on Friday December 6, represents an approximately $42.65 increase in the total tax bill of a property assessed at $356,000, said a city media release.
“The increase is driven by a number of unavoidable costs and pressures, including: inflationary and contractual labour increases as well as new program and service delivery costs,” it explained.
The 2.03% increase is only on the city portion of a resident or property owner’s taxes. The City of Oshawa is part of a two-tier government system and collects property taxes on behalf of the City, the Regional Municipality of Durham and the Province for local school boards. For every dollar collected, approximately 41 cents is allocated to the Region and 18 cents to local school boards – the city keeps only 41 cents, said the release.
The approved 2020 City Budget will be available online in the coming weeks on the Budget webpage.
A 2 % cut in police spending would be more appropriate then they could probably reduce taxes by the same amount.