Niagara Falls City Council has adopted its operating budget for the 2026 fiscal year.
The operating levy increase will be 2.43 per cent, which is 0.5 per cent lower than what Mayor Jim Diodati had originally proposed, after some amendments proposed by councillors were accepted to help get the tax increase down.
For the average household worth $280,000, that will result in a tax increase of roughly $77 in 2026.
Taxpayers should keep in mind that the city tax levy is responsible for approximately 37 per cent of the overall tax bill. The rest is made up of taxes imposed by Niagara Region (54 per cent) and the province’s education levy (nine per cent).
The tax increase in Niagara Falls is on the higher side when compared to other local municipalities, such as St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, as the tax increase includes a two per cent capital levy increase in addition to the operating levy.
As Councillor Lori Lococo noted, while city staff were trying to focus on the lower operating tax levy increase figure, it’s important to incorporate the capital levy increase and focus on the overall figure (which ended up at 4.43 per cent), as that is the ultimate cost to be borne by taxpayers.
In the presentation made to councillors by city staff, staff were also quick to point out that some type of a tax increase is unavoidable, given inflationary costs that apply to labour, benefits, materials, contracted services and utilities.
The three main areas where staff were looking to increase spending – for software costs, sidewalk repair, and stormwater maintenance – were left intact. All of these were listed as priorities in Diodati’s budget.
Niagara Falls will spend an additional $864,000 on software costs in 2026, primarily to invest in cyber security measures. Diodati and others pointed to the experience of Hamilton and others as cautionary tales of failing to invest enough in cyber security infrastructure and the long-term costs of having to recover from breaches.
The city will also spend an extra $270,000 on sidewalk repairs and $276,000 to ensure storm water maintenance will occur on a more regular timetable, with cleaning timetables reduced from once every 15 years to once every five years.
Niagara Regional Council has yet to determine its final property tax hike. The figure stood at 6.98 per cent before councillors narrowly voted in early January to give Regional Chair Bob Gale roughly a month to study the budget and suggest proposed changes to try to get the increase down.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
