Greater Sudbury city council would need to increase the tax levy by approximately 39 per cent in order to fill the city’s annual infrastructure gap
Like clockwork, the annual municipal budget cycle has brought with it a public refrain of “taxes are too high.”
“If we could have an unlimited budget to address all of our infrastructure needs in one year, you would be raising current taxes by about 39 per cent,” Archer explained.The city’s previous estimate, released earlier this year, recorded an annual shortfall of $103.3 million, at which time not all asset classes were included.
During his public address last month highlighting city council’s first year on the job, Mayor Paul Lefebvre described the city’s growing infrastructure gap as “tough.”“Big city, low density; that’s the challenge that we have, so how do we address that and try to keep the tax rate as low as we can, provide good services, as well as having modern facilities?”
“They’re at a point in their life where they have got to be replaced, and those provincial and federal sources of money aren’t there like they used to be, so the municipal taxpayer is on the hook for them,” he said. “It is a difficult conversation, but it is a conversation that ... council has demonstrated some willingness to have,” he said.
The city’s latest total estimated debt load at the start of the year, according to the 2023 budget document, was approximately $353 million, which requires annual repayments of $22 million per year, including principal and interest. Based on council’s self-imposed debt limit threshold, an additional $460 million could be borrowed. The provincial threshold is even greater.
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