The City Council of Côte Saint-Luc adopted the operating budget and capital expenditures budget for 2023 at a special council meeting on December 19, 2022, and the tax rate at a special council meeting of December 21, 2022.
Operating budget highlights and property tax rate
- Revenues: $84.2 million (7.42% increase over prior year)
- Revenues from taxes: $72.2 million (7.43% increase over prior year)
- Local expenses: $50.7 million (3.48% increase over prior year)
- Agglomeration of Montreal expenses: $35.6 million (increase equivalent to 15.5% including real* Agglomeration expenses)
- Appropriation from surplus to cover the Agglomeration 2021 deficit and part of the 2023 expense increase: $2.1 million
- Tax increase for an average residential home (house/condo/townhouse): 5.95%
Côte Saint-Luc pays an apportionment to the City of Montreal for Agglomeration and island-wide services, such as police, public transit, water, major roads, and fire prevention. This payment represents 42.3% of our spending budget in 2023. On November 25, the City of Montreal surprised cities on the island with a large increase for Agglomeration services. Montreal unilaterally increased the Agglomeration operating budget by 8.75% in 2023, way above the cost of inflation. The City of Côte Saint-Luc was forced to compress its own local spending to keep the property tax rate increase as low as possible. The City’s local budget is $50,666,050 which represents an increase of 3.48% compared to 2022.
Côte Saint-Luc and the Association of Suburban Municipalities are exploring options for contesting this increase from the Agglomeration, which we believe is unfair.
* In 2022, the Agglomeration charged each city the usual fees plus a one-time (non-recurring) fee to cover the 2020 deficit caused by unbudgeted pandemic-related expenses and police overspending. Because of the one-time fee, Côte Saint-Luc was expecting a reduction in the apportionment in 2023. Due to the new valuation roll and additional Agglomeration net expenses of more than $225 million, the actual increase for Côte Saint-Luc is 15.5% more in 2023 compared to 2022.
Three-year capital program 2022-2023-2024
Every year, the City presents a three-year capital program (PTI) 2023—2025 to signal what it plans on spending on infrastructure and other items with a long-term life-span. Projects included in the PTI are financed by long-term debt, the City’s working fund, government grants, or donations.
The projects planned for 2023 include $13.7 million of projects (plus applicable taxes), which includes following:
- Water infrastructure: lead service line replacement ($1.3 million)
- Road resurfacing and sidewalk reconstruction ($6.9 million)
- Parks and public spaces ($1.1 million)
- Building and local improvements ($3.2 million)
- City vehicles ($0.6 million)
- Equipment, furniture and other ($0.5 million)
Visit CoteSaintLuc.org/finance for information on the 2023 operating budget or three-year capital program.
Quotations
“The unjustified increased in the bill from the Agglomeration of Montreal, and inflation generally, has forced the City of Côte Saint-Luc to reduce local spending and increase the tax rate. The tax increase for an average single-family home is 5.95 percent. To help ease the added tax burden, the City is phasing in the new property valuations over three years, which softens the impact to property owners.” – Mayor Mitchell Brownstein
“The Agglomeration has passed onto the demerged cities a huge rate increase, the largest increase in at least 15 years. That made this budget building process the most difficult during all my years on City Council. That said, the City Council tried to find the right balance between cuts to our local operating budget and increase in tax revenue. I thank City Manager Jonathan Shecter, City Treasurer Angelo Marino, and the department heads for finding ways to cut spending while minimizing the impact on services to residents. This made it possible to minimize the tax rate increase.” – Steven Erdelyi, Councillor responsible for the finance portfolio