'Record growth': St. Thomas council keeps tax increase below 4% thanks to industry boom

St. Thomas City Council has approved it’s 2025 budget, and it’s a modest 3.93 per cent increase.

“It amounts to about $120 on the average home as an increase next year, so we're pretty happy with that,” said Coun. Gary Clarke.

Council initially was looking at an increase of close to 5 per cent, but after hours of deliberating, was able to knock one per cent off the target.

One reason they were able to keep it under four per cent was Coun. Jeff Kohler’s suggestion to dip into reserves.

“I looked at the budget and I didn't want to cut anything from there,” said Kohler. “The way I look at it is, instead of making everybody today pay the pay the price, let’s soften the blow a little bit and we’ll have the money coming forward so we can replenish the reserves.”

Some of that money will be coming from current and future growth, including the Volkswagen plant.

St. Thomas City Council believes the payoff from Volkswagen at Yarmouth Yards will replenish the reserve fund in the future. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“We have all the work going on at Yarmouth Yards, and a lot of industry in town,” said Kohler. “One thing that's not talked about right now is that we're having record growth in the city if we exclude Volkswagen. Volkswagen is taking out the permits now, so with that future growth comes we're going to have some very positive cash flow coming in and then we can look at replenishing those [reserves] and then increasing spending in other places and hopefully give some tax relief.”

There are several big capital projects on tap for 2025.

Included in the nearly $75 million levy is $11.5 million for the Complete Streets project.

The bridge removal and Phase One of rehabilitation of Fairview Avenue has been budgeted at $7 million.

They city will also finish the animal shelter, which has been in the works for years. It is a cost of $4 million.

After being put off for years, the city will build an animal shelter on Southdale Line at a cost of $4 million. (Source: City of St. Thomas)

“I'm very happy with that, as it's been a long time coming,” said Joan Rymal, an animal advocate and former councillor.

She’s been championing this project for more than a decade, and her daughter Sara Teare – co-owner of One Password- has donated $1 million to the project.

The shelter has gone to tender in the past, but construction costs were always too high.

It looks like it will happen next year.

A major capital budget project in 2025 is the removal of the bridge on Fairview Avenue in St. Thomas, Ont. a cost of $7 million. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“It has to be a nice building,” said Rymal. “We're hoping to add that educational component to the building. Having school kids come in, so by the time you have washrooms and things like that, things add up. That's just the cost of things.”

The main factor in the increased operating budget is the addition of new full-time employees, totaling over $2 million in wages.

“That includes about 23 new staff, half of which are police services,” said Clarke. “If you want a vibrant city in a in a safe city, you must have the staff. We think people will be pleased with the number of road projects and different trails and parks that we're improving. I think it's a balanced budget, so I think people will be happy with us keeping that at around 4 per cent rate.”