City budget: Londoners’ 2025 property tax pain eased – a little bit

Londoners will face a slightly smaller property tax hike in 2025 than initially expected.

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Mayor Josh Morgan is set to present a proposed budget update on Tuesday that will reduce the property tax increase for next year to 7.4 per cent from the expected 8.7 per cent that was approved in the 2024-27 four-year budget approved last winter.

The reduction was possible after city staff found $6.7 million in savings and a pair of city-funded outside agencies, London Public Library and London police, both trimmed costs, Morgan said in a Monday interview.

An 8.7 per cent tax hike would have added $311 to the property tax bill of the owner of an “average” London home – “average” being one assessed at $252,000. The proposed 7.4 per hundred hike in 2025 would mean an increase of $265 for the average home.

“There are a number of things that got us to the reduced amount and this is the start of the process. We will continue to go through it,” Morgan said.

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After he presents the update at a meeting Tuesday, there will be a series of pop-up information sessions and ward councilor meetings from Oct. 30 to Nov. 18, before an official public participation session at city hall on Nov. 19.

Morgan credits the cuts to city departments doing a line-by-line review of costs and coming up with savings as part of a “service review program” staff undertook.

In addition, London police took $850,000 from its reserve fund to reduce its funding from the city. The London Transit Commission found $1.5 million in savings and London Public Library spread renovation work needed at branches over a longer period of time, reducing $20 million in costs over 10 years to $13.6 million, Morgan said.

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City politicians will have their say on any changes during a meeting on Nov. 21, and an extra meeting on Nov. 22 if needed. A meeting will be held Nov. 27 to finalize any changes, and Morgan will have to signal his intention to veto changes with his so-called strong mayor powers by Dec. 2.

The city will also reduce spending in 2026 by $4.6 million and $4 million in 2027, Morgan said. The city’s annual budget is roughly $1.3 billion

Likely to come up again during discussions is the four-year, fully approved London police budget that’s worth a total of $672 million, or an average of $168 million annually. Politicians also are looking to crack down after the police board spent $104,000 on a public relations firm campaign to help sell the record budget ask.

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The budget also details how the city is planning capital investments of $160 million in 2025, part of a $1.5-billion, 10-year capital plan from 2024 to 2033.

But the tabled budget does not include any money to Ark Aid Mission Inc. that asked for $4.2 million to keep its 90 beds open year-round for London’s homeless. The agency secured city funding in recent years for its winter response program and it was looking for year-round stability. Morgan, however, wants the provincial and federal governments to step up and pay for it.

“It is an ongoing discussion with the federal and provincial governments,” he said of money to fund a homeless strategy.

“It is not in the budget but we have runway until the end of the year. . . funds for encampments, the winter response should come from provincial and federal allocations. I am optimistic they will come through.”

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Sarah Campbell, executive director of Ark Aid, warned the agency is filled to capacity daily, year-round and the city may have 90 more people on the streets if funding is not found.

“I was looking at our statistics from last year and in the first quarter in 2023 we had 5,000 nightly beds. In the first quarter of this year we have 10,000 nightly stays. It more than doubled,” Campbell said of the growing need.

Ark Aid has about 100 staff and without staff, it will not be able to deliver its programs, she said. Campbell is calling on the city to fund Ark Aid and then lobby other levels of government for money.

The agency regularly turns away those in need of a bed, she said.

“We can stand together and apply pressure. This is a shared responsibility,” Campbell said. “If we do not have a plan, we are playing with the lives of the most vulnerable and that is not appropriate.”

Ark Aid operates 30 beds at its 696 Dundas St. site and another 60 beds at William and Queen streets.

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