Windsor's mayor has a goal of reducing a projected 12.9 percent tax hike down to the rate of inflation but understands the challenges that it will take to get to that point.
Drew Dilkens told a news conference Tuesday that the 2025 preliminary budget estimates, without reductions, would result in a tax increase of 12.9 percent.
The city is pointing to extraordinary budgetary pressures for the estimated increase, driven primarily by factors outside of the corporation's control, including contractual obligations, legislated requirements, and inflationary pressures.
Those factors alone make up 6.33 percent, or $30,691,270, of the estimated $62,578,206 increase to the budget.
Another 2.09 percent, or $10,130,501, comes from other contractual and increased costs to the city from the agencies, boards, commissions, and committees.
Dilkens says they're going to do their best to get this down to something much more reasonable.
"I like the starting point that I have, which is at or below the rate of inflation; that's a commitment that I made to residents. I take that very seriously," he says. "That is my goal, and I'm hopeful we can get there, but I also understand the challenges it will take to get to that point."
Dilkens says the difficult part about the rate of inflation is that the rate is not the same for residential property owners as it is for the city.
"I would say at a minimum, it's 3 percent. Talking internally here with Janice and looking at the construction inflation index, it's probably closer to 4 percent," he says. "That is the strike place that we're trying to get to; it will be a huge amount of work. There's no doubt there will be some pain if we want to get down to 4 percent in terms of the operations at the City of Windsor."
One committee will examine elements under the corporate and community services umbrella; the next will focus on economic development and engineering; and the third will examine services under finance and social services.
Each committee will work alongside city commissioners and submit recommendations to administration for consideration, with the first meeting to begin Sept. 24.
Dilkens says we have to look at everything and every area for savings.
"It could include outsourcing; it could include eliminating positions. At the end of the day, we want to be very thoughtful about how we do this and make sure we're making the right cuts in the right place to really rightsize the way our operations work at the City of Windsor," he says. "I think we've got a great team here who can help deliver on that, and I'm confident we can get that number lower than 12.9 percent."
On September 11, the Dilkens announced a corporate hiring freeze for all permanent full-time positions at the City of Windsor ahead of the budget process.
The mayor must present the proposed budget by Feb. 1, 2025, under Ontario's Strong Mayor Powers, at which point council will have 30 days to review and make any recommendations for change.
The 2024 budget was passed with a 3.91 percent property tax increase; however, the tax rate was increased to 4.61 percent in May 2024 after the mayor reopened the budget as $3.2 million more in spending was approved to support the Strengthen the Core—Downtown Windsor Revitalization plan.