KITCHENER — Kitchener councillors approved a 2015 budget Monday that will raise property taxes by 1.91 per cent and boost water and sewer rates by 9.9 per cent.

The water and sewer increases add about $92 to the bill of the average homeowner, while the property tax increase will add $19.59 to the Kitchener portion of property taxes on the typical Kitchener home, assessed at $269,000, from $1,026 to $1,046.

The water and sewer increases work out to more than four times the rate of inflation, while the tax rate increase is slightly less than inflation, which was 2.3 per cent for 2014.

The decision on water and sewer rates was "without a doubt the most difficult decision of this year's budget," said Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

The increase was needed to deal with the growing backlog of aging pipes that need replacing. At current rates, it will take 150 years before the city replaces all the pipes that have outlived their lifespan.

Several councillors said they reluctantly supported the big water and sewer rate increases as the responsible thing to do. "I'm not prepared to mortgage the future of our infrastructure to our children and grandchildren, just for a short-term savings," said Coun. Bil Ioannidis. "That would be simply reckless."

Council heard that as the city's water infrastructure ages, the city is seeing more water main breaks, which leads to higher costs and decreased revenues. In 2014, the city saw 136 breaks, compared to a benchmark of 96. This year, the city has seen 44 breaks in the first two months of 2015. A break typically takes about eight hours to fix.

Coun. John Gazzola, a former chief financial officer for the city, argued that the city should use $1.5 million of the $7 million it gets yearly in federal gas tax revenues to pay to replace aging water and sewer pipes, to try to reduce the hit on ratepayers. "I'm fighting for our taxpayer, for our water user," he argued. But council balked at an 11th-hour decision that didn't clearly spell out the impact of such a move.

Several councillors argued council needs to have a thorough discussion over the next year on how to better plan to fund the infrastructure deficit. "We need to look harder at cost-saving opportunities for next year so we can tackle the infrastructure deficit and ease up on the nice-to-haves," said Coun. Sarah Marsh.

The 2015 budget includes about $108 million in tax-funded expenses, and $104.5 million in capital expenses for this year.

In an all-day budget meeting Monday, councillors worked to pare down the property tax increase, which city staff had proposed come in at 2.25 per cent.

Council unanimously passed Coun. Kelly Galloway-Sealock's proposal to take $250,000 from a capital reserve fund to top up the depleted tax stabilization fund, which is used to prevent fluctuations in the tax rate. The move allowed council to get the tax increase below two per cent. Council also passed Galloway-Sealock's proposal to not boost downtown sanitation by $70,000.

Councillors also made decisions on what to do with an extra $533,000 in tax revenue, generated from higher-than-anticipated assessment growth. Council approved most of the eight proposals staffers had proposed to allocate those extra funds, such as spending $100,000 to improve pruning for city trees, $60,000 in capital and $75,000 to hire a full-time person to boost e-participation with city hall, $11,800 for street festivals and $35,700 to hire a part-time person to improve the city's ability to respond to changing trends in volunteering.

Some earlier budget items, such as a $2-million new city snow dump, have fallen off the table. City staff were able to extend the lease on the city's current snow dump on Ardelt Place into 2016, pushing that priority off until future budget years. A new site with tough environmental controls and good road access, which could handle 15,000 or more truckloads of snow a winter, was estimated to cost almost $2 million.

A bid by Coun. Yvonne Fernandes to cut the tax levy another 0.1 per cent was defeated. Vrbanovic argued it was a move that only saved money for one year, leaving council to find the money in next year's budget.

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Property taxes levied by the City of Kitchener make up about a third of the average homeowner's property tax bill, with regional taxes making up about half of the property tax bill and school taxes accounting for 19 per cent.

Earlier this year, Cambridge approved a tax increase of 2.72 per cent and Waterloo approved a 1.53 per cent tax increase. The Region of Waterloo is proposing a tax increase of 2.63.