The Mayor and Councillors weighed up all of the
issues and public feedback and signed of the fnal
10-Year Plan with two goals top of mind - getng
the city’s fnances back on track and contnuing to
deliver a city people want to live in and do
business in.
Some difcult decisions have been made. There
are cuts to some services the Council provides, and
some user fees are going up.
The decisions made won’t please everyone but
the cuts have been made in areas that will have a
minimum impact on ratepayers. and there are stll
some new projects for the city.
In the future we will be in a much stronger
fnancial positon and that will mean we can
aford to do more when the need arises.
The results can be summed up like this:
We will return to surplus by 2017.
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Debt levels will be retained at about the same
•
level for the next 10 years. (Three years ago debt
was forecast to reach almost $700 million. It will
now remain at about $440 million).
Total rates will rise 3.8% each year to existng
•
ratepayers for the next 10 years providing
certainty to ratepayers. (by comparison rates
went up by 8% for the average Hamilton
household last year).
to run our city
for a year.
It costs around
This is how the Council plans to live within its means:
Operatng budgets have been cut by $11.7
•
million. That will afect some services but it
is expected the impact of those cuts will be
minimal. Council staf numbers will also be
reduced.
Some user charges will go up which will bring in
•
an extra $3.5 million each year.
Some assets will be sold and we will look at
•
others in more detail during the frst year of this
plan.
We believe this 10-Year Plan will address the issues
facing Hamilton while stll keeping rates afordable
and important services maintained. This plan is
prudent and sustainable in the long term.
The details of debt management, service cuts, fee
increases and the impact on the Council’s overall
budget can be found in the Council Services secton
of this document. In additon, a detailed list of
funded projects and projects the Council can’t
aford at this tme are included startng on page 82.
H a m i lt o n C i t y C o u n C i l
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