The increase is calculated assuming an average home value of $546,000.

Council passed the 2025 budget into law at a meeting, Tuesday.

Ballooning insurance costs, staff salaries and investments in infrastructure are the key drivers of the budget hike.

Town finance director Kyle Freeborn said staff salaries and compensation for volunteer firefights make up about $1.2 million worth of the increased budget.

The budget, recommended with six other budgetary changes in a staff report, was stamped last Thursday afternoon at a three-hour committee meeting following a series of talks beginning in November.

Last March, the town approved a 2024 $16.1 million operating budget and a 6.75 per cent hike to property taxes for the average resident.

An early draft of the budget, valued at about $18.4 million in November, would have cost residents $204 more each year in property taxes, almost double what the town has settled on this winter.

The staff report, signed by three senior staffers including Freeborn, broke down the savings, most of which came from reassessed revenue sources.

Up to $500,000 of the saved money comes from plans to use more of the town’s parking revenue and another $300,000 comes from interest revenues.

The report said staff are saving another $128,500 on vehicle repairs due to the hiring of an additional mechanic in 2024.

These and smaller savings helped cut the budget by $930,000 from the early draft, it said.

The report also recommended using $3 million from the sale of Niagara Regional Broadband Network to fund capital projects and surprise legal costs.

It suggested $1.5 million be put into the town’s capital reserves to fund future infrastructure, another $1 million go to council’s strategic priorities and $500,000 be set aside in a legal reserve.

Though Coun. Sandra O’Connor suggested it all be dumped into the capital reserve, she could not muster the support of her peers.

“We have legal fees that have far exceeded what we’ve budgeted in the past, so obviously we need to put money towards our legals,” Coun. Tim Balasiuk said.

Putting away some funds for priority projects would make it easier to address pressing issues, like parking in Old Town, he added.

Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa said putting it all towards capital investments could make it hard to use the proceeds for priority projects.

This was enough to tip Erwin Wiens to the other side, though he initially supported O’Connor.

The staff report also suggested savings could be made by leasing light vehicles instead of owning and maintaining them in-house.

Again, O’Connor was in the minority.

She wanted to see a staff report discussing potential savings from leased vehicles before committing to support staff’s recommendations.

Council also approved a budget recommendation to spend about $1.3 million from the town’s room tax reserve on reconstruction along Mississagua Street in Old Town.

Balasiuk, who sits on a committee overseeing those funds, said it was a “great way to use the money” and that the lighting was a potential safety issue for road users.

The case for a town law clerk, also in the budget, was under scrutiny too.

The position would be salaried at $122,000 a year and would help manage the town’s legal burdens.

Acting chief administrator Bruce Zvaniga said the town is entangled in multiple legal matters but has no in-house expertise.

An in-house law clerk could prepare and organize legal files before calling the town’s lawyers for legal advice.

This would reduce the hours the town is charged for legal consultation.

“It’s a smart way to drive down our costs,” Zalepa said.

Wiens, not quite sold, asked if the savings in reduced lawyer fees would cover the cost of the hire.

Though Freeborn could not provide definitive saving estimates, he said town lawyers charge anywhere between $300 and $1,000 per hour, whereas the clerk would cost about $51 per hour, which would be much more cost-efficient for the town.

Council also discussed and approved the capital budget, valued at $17.2 million.

O’Connor and Coun. Gary Burroughs withheld support due to a steep, 68 per cent increase over the 2024 capital budget.

In favour of the increased capital budget, Wiens said they were just passing infrastructural costs to the next generation by choosing to keep taxes low every year.

“We have an infrastructure crisis,” he said.

“We have to leave the place better than we found it.”