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While Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward was attending a Doug Ford news conference at Joseph Brant Hospital yesterday, her council was in revolt. By a vote of 6 to 4 they refused to endorse the 2025 city operating budget, which will pass anyway under strong mayor powers, and a motion to endorse the capital budget lost on a 3-3 tie. While both votes are largely symbolic given the passage of the budget is the purview of the mayor under Doug Ford’s strong mayor legislation, they underline tensions between councillors and the mayor that have been simmering since the last term of council.
The operating budget that the mayor will pass contains an 8.3 percent Burlington tax increase on spending of $264 Million. Burlington council has drawn criticism for insisting on using the term “tax impact” to present the budget—blending the city increase in taxes with Halton Region’s, tax increases which have been historically lower, to arrive at a combined tax increase this year of 4.97 percent on the tax bill which the region collects on behalf of its municipalities. The capital budget is just over $105 million.
