This holiday season will bring a property tax increase for Guelph residents … or rather, knowledge of how much the increase will be.
Thanks to process changes brought on by the introduction of so-called strong mayor powers, the 2024 to 2027 city budget won’t become official until the end of Dec. 25 and it doesn’t require formal council approval.
Instead, the city’s spending plan – now formally referred to as the mayor’s budget – will be automatically adopted, explain city staff.
However, that won’t happen until after the budget is publicly introduced to council and discussed in November, followed by a series of opportunities for the mayor to veto council-approved changes and council to override mayoral vetoes with a two-thirds majority vote.
The day the budget becomes official is the same whether or not vetoes and overrides happen. No vote of adoption is needed.
Despite the change in process, creation of the draft budget will be “fairly consistent” with what’s been done in the past, city treasurer Tara Baker said Thursday during a session of Breezy Breakfast, a regular public gathering at a downtown diner that invites guest speakers.
“It is very new,” she told those attending the gathering in person and online. “We’re trying to make sure we’re communicating with the public as we go.”
Baker highlighted another significant change in the process – the public will have less time to review the draft budget before it’s presented to council.
Traditionally, the draft budget is released as part of the agenda package posted online about 11 days before council’s first formal crack at it. Due to a provincially legislated 30-day timeline, that’s now been reduced to about 3.5 days.
Baker explained the budget will be publicly released on Nov. 3 as part of the updated agenda for council’s Nov. 7 meeting.
Public delegations regarding the draft budget are planned for Nov. 15
Council’s opportunity to propose changes to the draft document will follow on Nov. 29. After that, the mayor has 10 days to decide if they will veto any council-approved amendments, along with the reasons for overturning those majority decisions.
That’s followed by a 15-day period, ending Dec. 25, for council to potentially override any mayoral veto with a two-thirds majority.
