County of Brant Council approved an increase to their property tax rate after passing their 2023 budget during their regular meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
County of Brant Council approved an increase of 5.8 per cent to the municipal property tax rate resulting in an increase of approximately $184.44 for the median home per year.
“Through many conversations and careful thought, County of Brant Council has approved the budget for 2023,” said Mayor David Bailey. “We found a balance between meeting the needs of the community while ensuring we are acting in a financially responsible manner.”
“The property tax rate increased this year due to a number of factors,” noted Bailey.
Among those reasons include:
• Inflationary costs have affected almost everything including salaries, fuel, materials, contracts and services.
• The County of Brant continues to invest in key community projects including affordable housing and a new Fire Station. New services and programs are also in place to meet the needs of residents to ensure the streets are safe, to add multiuse paths, to support community partners such as Stedman Community Hospice and to advance environmental protection, to name a few.
• The County of Brant is growing and with growth comes the need for more infrastructure such as roads, water and sidewalks, new services and programs and the staff to deliver services.
“When comparing the County of Brant to surrounding single-tier municipalities, Brant still has one of the lower tax rates,” said Bailey. “The County of Brant has maintained a consistently low property tax rate with a high level of service, and we are proud of that.”
Based on 2022 property tax rates, the median home paid:
• County of Brant – $3530.62
• City of Brantford – $4752.04
• Haldimand County – $4207.24
• Norfolk County – $4699.98
Most municipalities who have finalized their budgets are seeing an increase to property tax rates and those increases have varied greatly among municipalities.
This year, Council voted to use money from the reserves to ensure that operating and capital investments could be made without impacting services and programs delivered to the community and to reduce the burden of a property tax increase on the County ratepayer. Next year, in 2024, Council will need to carefully consider how to meet the growing needs of the community while maintaining an appropriate level of reserves.
