2025 Budget FAQs

A municipal budget is a plan for how dollars are used, invested, or earned over a given period. It is also a policy and planning document that outlines the Town’s priorities. Decisions made as part of the budget process define the programs and services that contribute to a municipality’s quality of life. 

A municipality’s Long Range Financial Plan (LRFP) helps determine long-term affordability typically 10 years. The LRFP is updated annually, based on informed assumptions, such as inflationary increases and the timing of development and the associated receipt of development charge fees (Vision Georgetown development expected to commence late 2026). It also permits the Town to plan effectively for financial sustainability, ensuring reserves are sufficient to fund the state of good repair program and manage any unexpected events. This in turn provides guidance for both the annual operating and capital budgets in terms of affordability and net tax levy requirements. 

The Town’s budget is made up of two parts – an operating budget and a capital budget.

The operating budget covers the on-going day-to-day expenses of a municipality to cover programs and services to residents. This includes items such as staff salaries, fire services, and community services. 

The capital budget typically includes larger expenditures that result in either a new asset (to address growth demands) or repairs to an existing asset.  Repairs to existing assets are driven by the Town’s Corporate Asset Management Program (CAM), which focuses on preserving the condition of assets and extending their useful lives in the most economical way possible by keeping them in a state of good repair.

The term ‘state of good repair’ refers to keeping assets in good condition or good working order. For the Town, this means investing in its current assets such as facilities, roads, bridges and other infrastructure that the municipality already owns.

Staff is proposing an operating budget increase (not a tax increase) of 10.86%.  This increase is required to maintain services at the same level as the current year and incorporate inflationary increases to known contracts and services.

Work commenced on the 2025 operating budget in April of this year. With limited new assessment growth for the upcoming year, inflationary increases and continuing economic uncertainties, staff were directed to focus on developing a budget that would maintain existing service levels. Starting with the 2024 base budget, each line item was carefully reviewed to determine any known changes to revenues and expenditures and identify opportunities for operational efficiencies and savings. 

For 2025, staff were able to realize savings of:

• 0.72% from the realignment of fire dispatch services and reorganization to form the new Community Services Department = $532,300

The 2025 budget is not focused on adding new programs or services, instead it is focused on keeping the existing ones at the same level as 2024.The staff recommended operating budget for 2025 reflects inflationary cost increases, salary and benefit increases for existing positions, additional contributions to reserves as outlined in the long-range financial plan and additional positions to address previous capacity shortfalls in delivering services.

A user fee is a charge paid by an individual for the use of a public service. User fees are a source of funding that municipalities can implement, outside of property taxes. The Town charges fees for licenses, permits and services such as transit and recreation. In some cases, fees are charged to recover 100% of the cost of delivering a service, or partially, as is the case for Activan. 

Special levies are imposed on property taxpayers when the Town determines a need for dedicated funding. The 2025 proposed budget includes three special levies:

• The annual State of Good Repair Levy at an investment of $3.1M in 2025 to maintain the Town’s existing infrastructure, at $19.48 per $100,000 of residential assessed value
• The reintroduction of an annual Fire Services Levy of $630K to fund the staffing needs identified in the updated Fire Master Plan and mitigate risks to people and property, at $3.96 per $100,000 of residential assessed value 
• The continuation of an annual health care levy in the amount of $160K to pay for future healthcare needs in the community at $1.01 per $100,000 of residential assessed value (no increase in 2025).

As of October 31, 2023, the Government of Ontario expanded strong mayor powers to the Town of Halton Hills. Strong mayor powers offer resources to heads of Council to accelerate the implementation of key shared municipal-provincial priorities such as housing, transit, and infrastructure. 

As part of the strong mayor powers, Mayor Lawlor is required to table a Mayor’s budget which may include changes to the staff recommended budget published on October 15. As part of the process, the Mayor’s budget is subject to Council amendments, a Mayoral veto and Council override. Mayor Lawlor will table her budget on November 4.

Yes. The municipality has previously borrowed money through the Region of Halton for large capital projects.  The Town benefits from favourable borrowing rates due to the AAA credit rating of Halton Region.

No, by law, municipalities in Ontario are not permitted to run a deficit. They must have a balanced budget and cannot finance operations with debt.

Reserves and reserve funds are monies set aside to be used in the future, beyond the current budget year. The Town of Halton Hills has different types of reserves and reserve funds, some that must be used for specific purposes and others that can be used as needed.

Reserves help keep the Town financially stable by:

• Protecting against unexpected problems or risks
• Planning for ongoing maintenance and replacement costs
• Covering specific debts or obligations
• Evening out expenses that might otherwise cause big budget swings
• Saving for large future projects
• Providing a way to fund things internally without borrowing

Giving flexibility in managing debt

The majority of the Town’s funding comes from property taxes. Sources include:

• Property taxes = 76.7%
• User fees = 11.4%
• Fines and penalties, = 0.4%
• Development charges (for growth related expenditures and DC funded debenture repayments) = 0.9%
• Grants and subsidies from other levels of government (restrictions apply) = 2.8%
• Investment income = 2.8%
• Contributions from reserves = 0.5%
• Misc (incl. recoveries & donations) = 4.5%

Current budget challenges include:

• Inflationary impacts: Consumer Price Index, construction price index, supply chain constraints 
• High cost of borrowing (interest rate impacts)
• Low assessment growth 
• Resourcing needs to maintain existing services and respond to downloaded and legislated changes
• Realignment of Regional services requiring Town budget increase with corresponding Regional decrease

No, tax and budget impacts are calculated differently. The impact on property tax bills is dependent on a few different factors, including the amount of levies raised by the Region of Halton to pay for their services and similarly, the Province for education taxes. In addition, the municipality must consider the net levy required to deliver its services. 

Please refer to the property tax section of this document for more information.

There are several ways to learn more or participate in the budget process including:

• Attending a Ward Meeting (speak to Council members, complete a comment card)
• Visiting the Budget 2025 project page on letstalkhaltonhills.ca
• Watching the Budget Meetings livestreamed on December 2 and 3 at haltonhills.ca
• Delegating at a Budget Meeting by completing a delegation form on the website
• Submitting comments via email to clerks@haltonhills.ca 

Writing or calling the Mayor or your Councillor

The calculation of property tax rates is a complex process that involves several steps:

i. Adoption of the annual budget by Regional and Local Councils.

Both Regional and local municipalities are required to adopt a budget. 

During the annual budget process all necessary costs to sustain all Town services at expected levels are carefully assessed, and any proposed budget increases are deliberated by Council before final approval.

The adopted budget determines the total amount to be levied on all property owners in the Town.

ii. Annual roll return is received from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.

In December each year, the Town receives the assessment roll from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). This roll provides the tax classification (based on use) and the Current Assessed Value (CVA) for all properties within the Town.

Common property tax classifications include Residential (RT), Commercial (CT), and Industrial (IT).

iii. Tax policy is approved by Regional Council.

Regional Council establishes the tax ratios for various property classes by approving tax policy. These ratios compare the tax rate of non-residential property classes, such as multi-residential, commercial, and industrial, to the tax rate of residential properties, which always maintain a ratio of one.

Tax ratios determine the portion of the levy that each property class is responsible for. For instance, in 2024, the tax ratio for commercial properties is 1.4565, meaning that for every dollar of assessed value, commercial properties pay 1.4565 times more than a similarly valued residential property.

iv. Tax rates are calculated by the Town.

 After the tax policy is approved, the Town calculates the tax rate based on the adopted budgets and established tax ratios. (Education rates are provided by the Minister of Finance.)

v. Tax bills are calculated and mailed out.

The calculated tax rates are then entered into the Town’s billing software so that the final tax bills can be generated and issued in May.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) is responsible for assessing non-residential properties, including those in the commercial and industrial tax classes. Commercial properties encompass those used for retail, food service, office, or general commercial purposes, while industrial properties include those used for manufacturing and processing goods.

MPAC uses three primary approaches to determine the current value assessments of non-residential properties:

Cost Approach to Value

• Cost of replacing structures including depreciation combined with land values based on similar sales in surrounding areas.

Direct Comparison Approach to Value

• Sales of comparable properties in surrounding areas.

Income Approach to Value

• Uses the income a property produces including expense information and establishes capitalization rates based the relationship of income and sales prices.

The valuation determined by MPAC is then multiplied by the applicable tax rate to calculate the tax liability for each property. In Halton Region, the current tax policy set by the Regional Council establishes a commercial tax ratio of 1.4565 and an industrial tax ratio of 2.0907.

This means that for every dollar of assessed value, commercial properties are taxed at 1.4565 times, and industrial properties at 2.0907 times the rate of a similarly valued residential property.

Property owners receive one tax bill from the municipality that includes services from the Town, Halton Region, police and school boards. The tax revenue is then distributed amongst all the agencies with the Town receiving approximately .51 cents of every dollar to pay for the services that it delivers with the remainder split amongst Halton Region (including HRPS) at approximately .33 cents, and the school board at .16 cents.  Each year, the tax bill increase reflects the blended rate of Halton Region, the school board and the municipality.

Your property tax bill is calculated using the assessed value of your home/business as determined by the Municipal Property Investment Corporation (MPAC). This is an independent, not-for-profit organization. For more information, refer to the handouts or contact the MPAC Customer Contact Centre at 1-866-296-MPAC (6722), or 1-877-889-MPAC (6722) or visit mpac.ca to learn more.

The Town of Halton Hills has an online property tax portal that can be accessed at anytime. 

The portal allows property owners to review and print their bill or statement, sign up for e-

billing or pre-authorized payments in a free, secure, environment.