Hamilton City Council’s second day of budget deliberations will break the 25-year-long script of how successive councils have debated the ‘Boards & Agencies’ budget lines: for the first time, the Hamilton Public Library has been instructed to lower its budget request, and for the first time, the Library presentation will not be the ‘feel-good’ event of the process following the Library’s decision to close the Central branch on Sundays due to the declining public safety condition of the downtown core.
In response to Mayor Andrea Horwath’s directive to lower its budget, the Library’s presentation slides for today’s meeting states the HPL will being making “some difficult choices” to lower expenditures.
Similarly, the Hamilton Farmers Market’s budget request exceeds the Mayor’s ‘Hold the Line’ 4.25 per cent increase budget directive. The higher-than-permitted increase is due to the Market’s need to hire full-time security in response to disruptive behaviours arriving in the facility from problems outside on York Boulevard.
The Hamilton Police Service budget is also being presented today. Police plan to increase operating expenditures by 9.3 per cent in 2026, and are using accounting methods to lower the tax levy impact to 6.81 per cent this year. The HPS will ask Council to accept, in principle, a plan to increase police operating spending by 8.2 per cent in 2027, with a tax levy impact of 10.4 per cent to cover the 2027 and annualize the 2026 increases.
HPS is planning to add 21 full-time staff for a dedicated Intimate Partner Violence Unit, and 37 swore patrol & front-line police officers.
There are ten scheduled budget presentations today. Hamilton’s four watershed conservation areas, public health, the Hamilton Beach Rescue Unit, and the Royal Botanical Gardens will also present their budgets.
Super-Majority of Council has Already Voted Against Mayor Horwath’s Budget
For the first time in 25 years, the budget is not choreographed in advance, following a Council super-majority vote on Friday to rebuke Mayor Andrea Horwath’s budget.
In a 5-to-11 vote, City Council voted down the procedural formality of receiving the Mayor’s budget directive update memo. The Mayor’s only allies in the vote were her budget committee chair Maureen Wilson (Ward 1), budget committee vice-chair Craig Cassar (Ward 12), Nrinder Nann (Ward 3), and Tammy Hwang (Ward 4).
If the 11 councillors vote together, they can amend the 2026 budget with a veto-proof majority.
Today’s Day Two of deliberations begins at 9:30 a.m. and will be livestreamed on YouTube. The agenda is here.
Production Details
v. 1.0.1
Published: January 27, 2026
Last updated: January 27, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
v. 1.0.1 the final tax levy amount was updated to 6.81 per cent. The original version had the earlier 7.37 per cent noted.