In our letter, we urged Council to:
 
1. Freeze the 3.53% rate increase planned for 2023 

2. Act on the cost reductions and options proposed by City Administration to help bring the budget back to balance, including deferring reserve contributions to offset a portion of the operating deficit and drawing on the City’s fiscal stabilization reserve if required; and, 

3. Use this mid-cycle review to defer the hiring of 30 full-time equivalent positions (minimum) to address the City’s budget short fall (assumes 30 FTE positions at an average base salary of $75,000 resulting in a savings of $2.25M).

Business owners have based their plans on the 3.53% property tax rate increase set by City Council last year, along with the increases to utility rates approved as well. We believe another rate increase – on top of the tax and utility rate increases passed by Council only 12 months ago – would create unnecessary instability at a time when we need our job-creators to grow our economy and capitalize on the opportunities before us.