The average property tax bill in Niagara Falls will remain below the Niagara Region average. Pictured: Niagara Falls City Council. Photo Credit: City of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls City Council met on Jan. 21 to discuss Mayor Jim Diodati’s proposed 2025 operating budget, which built on city staff’s proposed budget, presented earlier this month.
Niagara Falls city staff initially proposed a 7.6 per cent property tax hike to fund the city’s operating budget and a 1.0 per cent property tax hike to fund the capital budget.
Diodati proposed significant changes, which would have seen the operating budget’s property tax increase reduced to 4.5 per cent. The proposed capital budget property tax increase was poised to remain the same, at 1.0 per cent.
That would have worked out to an overall tax increase of 5.5 per cent, or $4.1 million, for property owners.
A home with an assessed value of $280,000 would have seen a property tax increase of $275.45 in 2025 under Diodati’s original proposal. Of that increase, $185.70 would be caused by increased taxes at the regional level, while $89.75 would be caused by increased taxes by the city.
According to city staff, a 3.9 per cent operating budget property tax increase is needed simply to cover inflation.
Diodati’s original budget, which Council later proceeded to change with Diodati’s support, added just 0.6 per cent in additional spending beyond the rate of inflation. That would have been significantly less than the 3.7 per cent city staff originally proposed.
However, Diodati recognized that most councillors wanted to see the operating budget property tax increase kept to 3.9 per cent rather than 4.5 per cent.
This was a view voiced early on in the meeting by Councillor Mike Strange.
Last fall, Council told staff to produce a budget that raised property taxes to support the operating budget somewhere between 3.9 and 4.5 per cent.
Diodati noted that his proposed budget accomplished that goal, with a proposed 4.5 per cent increase. However, after presenting his budget, Diodati presented an additional slide that offered 10 possible points of action to take to further reduce the operating budget property tax increase from 4.5 per cent to 3.9 per cent.
Cuts put on the table included reducing the fire department’s budget by $50,000, reducing the software budget by $40,000, and reducing museum hours, saving $60,000.
The ideas to further get the property tax increase down were taken from Councillors Lori Lococo, Ruth-Ann Nieuwestegg, and Mona Patel, as well as city staff.
Staff and Diodati both said they were comfortable with the additional cuts to get the operating budget property tax increase down to 3.9 per cent.
Council decided to accept the revisions and ultimately voted to approve a 3.9 per cent operating budget property tax increase for 2025. The capital budget property tax increase remained at 1.0 per cent, meaning the final Niagara Falls lower-tier property tax hike for 2025 will be 4.9 per cent.
The average property tax bill in Niagara Falls will remain below the Niagara Region average. According to city staff, the City of Niagara Falls has the second-lowest property tax burden in the Region.

Jay Goldberg is the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He previously served as 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.