Page last updated on September 16, 2022 at 2:02 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives.
John Hamilton:
Hi, I'm Mayor John Hamilton.
Don Griffin:
And I'm Don Griffin, the deputy mayor. The 2023 budget is on its way.
John Hamilton:
Yeah.
Don Griffin:
And today, we're going to talk about the new local income tax and its impact on our essential city services.
John Hamilton:
You know, Don, the local income tax is a very important change to our budget, and we thought it might be helpful just to summarize some of that impact. It does a lot of things. One thing it does is it lets us invest in basic city services through the whole government. This isn't the most exciting part. This isn't the most unique part, but it's so important. The pandemic, the inflation, and the cost increases have really hit the city government very hard. The new multimillion dollars of this local income tax is going to help make sure we have the money for the basic supplies to run city government, to pay for the fuel costs to run city government, to pay contractors and our partners, whose costs have gone up. To make sure we just have the basic money to keep doing the stuff that we need to do.
John Hamilton:
And then, probably, most importantly, our most important resources are our people, and like any employer, we're facing lots of pressures as are our employees facing pressures. This new funding will help us keep up with the marketplace in salaries. We've seen the importance of doing that. It'll help us do better recruiting. We have a lot of retirements that people talk about the great resignation. We see that too. It's not, I know, the most exciting new thing, but it's fundamentally important. And the local income tax is really going to help our city keep our people, keep the best people, keep them trained, educated, and supplied with the stuff they need so we can do our jobs.
Don Griffin:
Fantastic. This is going to continue our growth, as being the city that we want to be.
John Hamilton:
We want to be the employer of choice. We want to be a place where people can have great careers in public service. We've got a history of that, and we got to make sure we keep protecting that.
Don Griffin:
All right. If folks want more information on what we're doing for essential city services, please visit our website. As always folks, have a good one.