Mayor says cuts needed to budget as city could face highest tax increase in 20 years

Taxpayers in Windsor who just received two of the largest tax increases in recent years are being warned to expect another increase next year.

Mayor Drew Dilkens told council on Monday that an early review of the city's operating budget by senior staff shows that "things are looking very challenging for 2025."

He's warning that without help from the province, the city will need to make service cuts to bring the tax increase in line with people's expectations.

Dilkens told reporters that the operating budget is growing because ofinflationary increases and contractual pressures.

That includes new contracts with the Windsor Police Service, Transit Windsor employees, and city library staff.

A city report shows the police budget is $3 million over budget this year, driven by pay raises included in the 2023-26 contract with members.

This is what Windsor's mayor is saying ahead of budget time about cuts or a big tax increase in 2025

3 days ago

Duration 7:11

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens takes questions from reporters after telling council the city's operating budget is rising in a way that could trigger a tax hike the likes of which haven't been seen in decades

Dilkens would not say what the the tax increase may bewhen pressed by council but said they would need to "dig deep" to find ways for the city to save money or generate more revenue.

"There are numbers being thrown about, but what the administration hasn't done yet is prepare reductions," said Dilkens.

"But it's fair to say that it's higher than we've seen it in the past 20 years."

The highest increase to the tax levywas 6.5 per cent in 2004.

Service cuts needed to avoid double digit tax hike: mayor

Ward 1 Coun. Fred Francis, who said he was first told by the mayor about the city's financial pressures mid-summer, said he's been trying to get a sense of the increase to come.

"I'vespent the better part of a month now trying to figure out what that increase is and all I hear from administrationis whispers saying 'It's going to be bad," said Francis.

After he asked for a number from administration, Windsor's Chief Financial Officer Janice Guthrie said they don'twant to create panic in the community.

"It's already there Janice. I'm panicking right now. I'm hiding it, but I'm panicking," replied Francis.

Dilkens ruled out a double digit tax increase when asked by reporters what the numbers would be.

"No, we'll find the cuts," he replied.

The mayor would not discuss possible job cuts.

"We won't go there yet. I don't want to ring the panic bell or the alarm bell," said Dilkens.

He warned "there are no sacred cows" as council and staff try to get a handle on the city's operating budget.

City needs to reconsider what services it offers, says mayor

But both fresh and experiencedvoices on council have concerns there might not be savings to find.

"This sounds like it could be a very daunting challenge, which I'm up for, but every year for the past two years since I've been on the budget table there's been so little room to move," said Coun. Renaldo Agostino, who represents downtown.

"There's two ways to skin a cat: We can either cut, or we canfind more efficient ways by increasing some things, bringing in more profit."

Dilkens said that administration and council will need to reconsider what the city offers.

"It will require you to look at services that we deliver and the way we deliver it today and whether we need to do that, whether it's appropriate to do that, and whether there's a better way to do it."

Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac, a longserving member of council who the mayor lauded for her budget knowledge, says she doesn't think there's enough time to get a handle on the potential tax increase.

"The numbers I'm hearing are huge," she told council as she brought them back to previous service deliver reviews done by city staff and council.

"It was probably the worst thing I ever had to do in my time on council," said Gignac.

Those reviews resulted in council cutting services offered by the city to hire outside companies.

"We found out that the efficiencies would providethe same or better servicefor more people. It wasn't easy to do. But that's where we found the most savings."

She said it will be a heavy workload for administration and council to findpotential savingsbefore the budget needs to be tabled in February.

"I just don't think we're going to find what we need to find in this truncated exercise."

Dilkens said that it's not just Windsor facing this kind of financial pressure and told reporters it would take provincial help to keep the status quo.

"Unless there's some pennies from heavens, from the province that help support us on the operating side which would be very unusual to see there's going to have to be a review about the services we deliver and how we deliver them to find operational efficiency," said Dilkens.

The next steps in the budget process

Taxpayers who want to keep an eye on the process will need to keep an eye out for new budget committees that will be formed by the mayor.

He's going to appoint councillors to three committees that will hold public meetings with city staff where they look at ways to reduce the city's operating budget.

Those recommendations will then be sent to the mayor who is now responsible for creating the budget under new enhanced mayoral powers approved by the province last year.

Dilkens will then bring forward a budget before February 1 that city council will have 30 days to review.