Let’s pick up where we left off. Last time, we looked at 2023, so today, let’s dive into 2024: the year the true cost of our town’s rapid expansion really started hitting our wallets.
Here in Milton, 2024 was the year Council approved a final local tax increase of 9.88%—which was actually even higher than the 9.5% increase they initially proposed. Right alongside it, the Town laid out a massive $1.2 billion, 9-year capital plan driven heavily by new growth. The warning from staff was right there in the reports: lower assessment growth meant existing taxpayers were going to have to shoulder more of the financial burden just to maintain new infrastructure.
When we look at Halton Region’s budget, our water and wastewater rates went up 4.3%. But if you look closely at the math, the breakdown is what’s really frustrating. The majority of that increase (2.8%) was essentially a “catch-up tax” just to fix aging, deteriorating pipes. Only 1.5% actually went to the daily operations of running the system.
Meanwhile, at the exact same time, the Region was floating nearly $700 million to build infrastructure for new developer subdivisions—debt they just hope developers will eventually pay back over time.
So, what does this actually mean for us? It means everyday residents are being hit with rate increases to fix neglected infrastructure, while the Region spends hundreds of millions of dollars subsidizing rapid new growth.
We can’t keep doing this. The bill for rapid growth and aging infrastructure is going to haunt us, and we cannot keep casually stacking up a massive bill for our kids just because we lack long-term vision today.
Disclaimer: All information presented here is based on publicly available reports from the Town of Milton and Halton Region.