In a difficult context of inflation, the City of Lévis has set the tax increase for single-family homeowners at 2.6% and is increasing the rates at the same time, ultimately reaching up to 4.6% in their pockets.
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For businesses, industries and buildings with six units, the increases will be even steeper, with tax increases of 4.4%, 5.3% and 5.5%. If we add the price increases, the increases will total 4.6%, 6.8% and 6.8% respectively.
“For cities and municipalities, is it an easy budget, with the inflation we know? The answer is no. Just us, with expenses of $12 million related to inflation, we start right away with a strike“, expressed the mayor Gilles Lehouillier, in presentation of the budget Monday.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Inflation
The City of Lévis is no exception and is affected by the economic context. Projected inflation would have justified a 6.9% tax increase. Mayor Lehouillier’s City had to make “considerable efforts” to keep overall taxation below inflation. Owners of single-family homes should expect an increase of 2.6%, or $61 for an average home of $329,700. It is still slightly above the average increase since Mr. Lehouillier came to power in 2013, or 2.1%. Added to this is the increase of $23 for the water rate, $23 for the waste management rate and 14% for the waste water treatment rate.
For six-unit buildings, which are subject to a 5.5% tax increase, the mayor speaks of a “rebalancing”, since the $100 assessment rate in Lévis was lower than in several other large cities. similar.
Inflation weighed on the expenditure budget by $358.7 million, with an economic bill of $12 million. It was the cost of contracts, fuel, energy and product purchases that increased expenses.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
For the City, the sustained economic growth has brought a balm, allowing it to reap additional revenues of $6.4 million, thanks among other things to a record number of building and renovation permits issued.
The situation could have been worse, agrees the mayor, since Lévis chose to reinject $3.4 million from its surpluses in order to “minimize the impact on the taxation of taxpayers”.
Services
Lévis chooses to improve its services by $2.7 million, but to a lesser extent than it would have liked. The improvements will affect residual materials, the addition of ice hours, entertainment at the Paquet dock and the contribution to the Société de transport de Lévis.
Debt
The debt continues to rise. It is estimated at December 31, 2022 at $481 million and at $529 million at December 31, 2023. Nevertheless, the City maintains that its debt management is “responsible”. Indeed, its total long-term indebtedness to income fell from 144% in 2020 to 129% in 2021. This was a recommendation from the Auditor General. Debt service, meanwhile, fell from 19.8% to 19.2% of the entire budget. In 2023, debt service amounts to $68.7 million.
Stevens LeBlanc/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
The opposition votes for
The budget was adopted in a special session of the municipal council. The only opposition councilor, Serge Bonin, voted for the budget “while putting forward some expectations”.
The adviser recently denounced the “lack of collaboration” of the Lehouillier administration, which he accused of limiting the transmission of information.
“Following the press briefing where I asked for more information, I received my first acknowledgment from the Mayor’s office regarding my questions on the budget, I thank them for that. However, the process remains very tight in terms of time: we are talking about a few hours before the only working session in committee of the whole to receive the second and final preparatory document. I always aspire that the collaboration improves from year to year”, he underlined by press release.