The largest published pressures.
The City's final 2026 budget identifies the categories below as the biggest positive pressures on the levy. These are categories, not necessarily individual departments.
Increased revenues and lower expenditures offset part of the positive pressures. That's why adding only the increases would overstate the final tax change.
The 2026 levy was lowered by a $3M Legacy Fund income-reserve draw.
This was accumulated investment income, not a draw on the original PDI-sale principal. But it was still one-time money used against an ongoing budget requirement.
Legacy investment income typically supports the capital program.
An additional draw reduced the levy taxpayers were asked to fund in 2026.
A one-time offset does not permanently reduce the recurring cost base.
Tax growth is a mix of recurring pressures and temporary offsets.
The useful question isn't simply whether the levy went up. It is which pressures are structural, which are choices, which are externally driven, and which reductions only postpone a future pressure.
The advanced view contains all seven levy-change categories, individual factors, Legacy reserve history and official source links.
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