Do taxes have to go up every year?

The short answer is no. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Every year the Town of Grimsby raises taxes by about 2.5%. If you compare the 2012 budget to the 2013 budget you can see how a change in process alone could have resulted in no increase to the to levy.

In 2012 Council approved a tax levy of $9,003,640. In 2013 they approved a levy of $9,299,260 for an increase of $95,620.

The 2013 budget was approved in March. In June of 2013 the town reported a budget surplus from 2012 of $692,542.00.  That number didn't factor in to setting the 2013 budget at all. The entire surplus for the year was banked by the town into the savings account (reserves).

Had Council been aware of that surplus they easily could have used $95,620 to reduce the levy requirement for the year and frozen taxes. That still would have allowed approximately $600,000 to be put into reserves.

The complaint that I always made when I was on Council is why don't we know the surplus or deficit figure for the previous year before we set the next years budget?  You can't set a budget without knowing how you did last year. I want to see us move to a system where the old years budget is finished before we approve the next years budget. This is just common sense.

Taxes could have easily been frozen in 2013 if the political will were there to do it. I suspect if you look back the same scenario could have been repeated for every other budget in this Councils term.

I will continue to push for a tax freeze in Grimsby.   The Town already has enough resources to fund it's annual obligations and it's time we stop asking for more from taxpayers every year just because we can.