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St. Catharines: Property taxes to go up 1.5 %
Friday, March 12th, 2010MIKE ZETTEL - Niagara This Week
Homeowners in St. Catharines are looking at a property tax bill increase of $17 on the average assessed home of $189,500.
The budget committee held their final meeting Monday evening, during which expenditures were whittled down to 1.33 per cent.
Taking into account city revenues that will result in a 1.5-per cent increase on the tax bill.
City treasurer Shelley Chemnitz said the committee approved nearly all the suggested revisions city staff had listed in the priority one category, which totaled $557,500. However, while one item, $32,500 for a long-term employee recognition night, was removed, councillors put $16,000 back in, so that employees still receive some sort of recognition.
Staff had also provided a list of non-recommended cuts which would be needed to get the increase down to zero. Most of the expenditures in that list, totaling $300,500, will go ahead.
However two of the items, $50,000 for graffiti removal and $50,000 for a condition assessment of the old courthouse, were removed. Instead, the city will undertake $10,000 in repairs to the courthouse this year and do the assessment next year.
Another large item cut was a plan by St. Catharines transit to boost Sunday service, running buses every half hour instead of every hour. That service enhancement, costing just over $214,000, was removed.
Coun. Jeff Burch motioned that $50,000 be included in order to pay for a study by CN Rail would need to do to introduce an automatic crossing signal at the end of Moffatt Street.
The Merritt trail crossing over the tracks was closed this summer after residents complained of loud train whistles. These were introduced after a single trail user complained the crossing was unsafe.
The only way to open the crossing without train whistles is for a crossing to be installed at an expected cost of about $250,000.
Burch told This Week trail users are finding a way across the tree trunks blocking the crossing.
“It’s not good to leave a temporary solution there and risk the safety of residents,” he said.
The $50,000 will not come out of the operating budget but from the parkland dedication fund, which is collected from development projects in the Oakdale-Moffatt area.
A public meeting will be held for the budget on March 8 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
