Burlington Post Article on Burlington Performing Arts Centre Funding Woes

As a Hamiltonian, I often take amusement at what's been happening in Burlington politically over the past few years. Historically, as a wealthy suburb of Hamilton and Toronto, with far fewer poor people, Burlington has been well managed with much lower mill rates for local taxes than Hamilton. However Burlington has become bigger now, with big city problems. This article in the Post about the relatively new Burlington Performing Arts Centre asking the city to pony up for more operating expenses:

"The Burlington Performing Arts Centre is asking the city for close to $1 million for its 2013 operations.

The theatre is requesting funding to offset a revenue shortfall of $225,250, as well as $68,000 for a full-time technician and $64,000 for a full-time sales associate.

This is in addition to the 2013 base contribution request of $637,310, for a total of $994,260.

The theatre has an operating budget of $2.9 million for 2013."

That's a pretty massive shortfall for the proposed budget and reminds a Hamiltonian of HECFI's travails. Burlington's pretty much built out now, so it can't rely on new development as a source of taxes and vitality. Sure Burlington can do some high rise infill, but any new project is going to subject to endless, well-organized NIMBYism. Expect the bad fiscal news to continue out of Burlington in the future.