From the District Municipality of Muskoka:
At its December 18 meeting, District Council approved a $155.9 million tax-supported budget with an operating levy of $94.2 million and $61.7 million in proposed capital expenditures.
That means residents will see a 3.94 per cent increase in the District portion of their municipal property taxes to fund municipal services and a 0.4 per cent increase to support hospital redevelopment. This represents an increase of approximately $40.38 per $300,000 of property assessment across the region or $970.48.
Similar to the pressures facing Muskoka’s residents, families and businesses, the District continues to experience pressures tied to inflation and the high costs of construction, supplies and insurance. The budgeting process focused on achieving the best balance possible – investing in key services and infrastructure to keep pace and prepare for the future while exploring every opportunity to reduce costs and find efficiencies in service delivery.
“We understand the economic pressures facing Muskoka residents and businesses, and we have worked hard to limit the impact to taxpayers wherever possible. At the same time, we have a responsibility to maintain services for future community needs. Council and staff faced very challenging decisions together to achieve this budget of balanced priorities,” according to Jeff Lehman, District Chair.
2024 Budget Highlights
This budget maintains all service levels and acts on the priorities identified by residents in Council’s new Strategic Plan. Key investments include:
- $4.2M to act on affordable housing and homelessness
- $23M to improve Muskoka’s road network, including $11M for surfacing projects, $1.2M for low-volume road improvements, in addition to Gravenhurst (Bay St.), Bracebridge (Taylor Rd. Bridge), and Highway #118 projects.
- $30M to expand access to 160 beds by redeveloping Fairvern Long-Term Care Home, part of a total investment to $121M
- $1.8M to support future redevelopment of hospital sites in Muskoka and beyond.
- $35.8M to fund future infrastructure needs by increasing our contributions to reserve funds
You can find the budget and District budgets from other years, HERE.
Where do District tax dollars go? See the chart below:
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
Peggy Tupper says
Transparency is vital when it comes to how tax dollars are spent. Although providing information as to the direction money is spent, the public is entitled to know how much of each tax dollar goes to salaries. Paramedic services account for 5.9% of the budget. How much money is that and how much goes to salaries compared to equipment, buildings and supplies. Each budget area should have a further breakdown so the public can actually see where the money goes. If this information is not provided, why is it not disclosed? How many people are on the Sunshine List? With the public being financially challenged with increased costs and stagnant wages, the tax paying public should know if civil servants are sharing the pain.