2026 Budget talks in March? Mayor disbands tax-busting group and launches work on 5% property tax target

CTV London’s Daryl Newcombe explains changes to the City’s Strategic Opportunities review group and 2026 budget talks.

Less than a year after it was announced, Mayor Josh Morgan has disbanded a working group of councillors who were tasked with finding ways to minimize upcoming property tax increases.

Instead, council’s Budget Committee will start holding preliminary talks this month about how to achieve Morgan’s 2026 property tax rate target (below 5 per cent).

“For us to actually do the work to get to under five per cent, it’s going to require the efforts of all members of council,” the mayor told CTV News. “So that’s why the Budget Committee is the most appropriate committee now to do so.”

Morgan has utilized his Strong Mayor Powers to disband the Strategic Opportunities Review Working Group (SORWG), a less-formal committee of councillors that he created last May (also with his Strong-Mayor Powers) to make recommendations that would reduce future tax increases.

However, SORWG had a minimal impact on this year’s 7.3 per cent property tax hike.

On Feb. 4, the mayor directed the city manager and the deputy city manager of Finance Supports to begin development recommendations that will achieve his tax target.

The Mayoral Direction reads, “Civic Administration, along with Agencies, Boards, and Commissions, be directed to bring forward options for consideration that, if adopted, would produce a 2026 property tax levy increase under 5 per cent.”

“We need ideas that actually move the numbers, a whole bunch of small things is not going to move the numbers,” Morgan explained. “We actually need to look at some substantive pieces of the budget.”

All 15 members of city council have a seat on the Budget Committee.

Budget Chair Elizabeth Peloza said the first meeting related to the 2026 Budget Update will be held on March 19, “We’ll [be] looking at our forecasted projects and seeing if we’re going to push things [later], if there’s other opportunities for revenue generation, and if there are opportunities for collaboration across the city.”

According to Morgan, capping the tax rate increase below five per cent requires finding about $13 million in savings and/or new revenue.

After annual property tax rate increases of 8.7 per cent in 2024, and 7.3 per cent this year, Peloza suggests the Budget Committee will be looking to municipally-funded agencies for budget relief.

“Since the civic administration portion was only about 3.5 per cent of the [2025] increase, a large portion of our budget increase that you saw was agencies, boards, and commissions,” she explained.

London’s external boards and commissions include London Transit, the London Public Library, the London Police Service, Conservation Authorities, and the Middlesex London Health Unit.

“I think it’s going to require not just municipal decision-making, but also decision-making by the boards and commissions,” said the mayor.

Morgan emphasized that savings could also come from delaying the implementation of certain initiatives that are not currently high priorities.

“We’re starting this whole process early because if you’re going to consider a number of things to get down below five per cent, we want to give time for engagement, time for things to be researched, and time for engagement with the boards and commissions across the city,” he added.