Newmarket officials vote to keep one-third of remuneration tax exempt

yorkregion.com
By Teresa Latchford
April 3, 2017

Newmarket council votes to keep one-third of their pay tax free.

Every year, town council must revisit this bylaw and vote whether to keep the tax exemption on one-third of their remuneration or scrap it. While many municipalities, including neighbouring East Gwillimbury, Vaughan, Markham and York Region, have opted out of the perk, Newmarket has maintained it as status quo.

“It is my feeling that there are fewer and fewer municipalities, to be frank, that have the one-third tax free,” Regional Coun. John Taylor said at the meeting. “I’ll be honest, I don’t fully understand it. I think it is because people don’t like the optic that you are getting something for free.”

He pointed out that while many of these municipalities have cut out the tax-free portion, they have also boosted their pay to make up for the shortfall, which would impact the budget.

“I know there is not a lot of sympathy out there for elected officials and pay, but the bottom line is you are talking about something in the range of a 10 to 15 per cent cut in pay,” Taylor added. “I am sure there are not a lot of people in our society working anywhere who would want to incur that in their own world when they’ve got to manage family costs and children and sports and mortgages, and we all have our own considerations.”

Newmarket resident and council watchdog Gordon Prentice feels the councillors should be paid fairly and adequately for the role they play as a public official, but this provision makes it difficult for the public to make comparisons among local municipalities, according to his blog entry on the matter.

“The one third tax-free status distorts comparisons between municipalities,” he wrote. “It is not easy or straightforward to compare the remuneration of the Frank Scarpittis of this world with the Tony Van (Bynens).”

For example, the recently released Sunshine List, a list of public-sector employees who make more than $100,000 annually, reports Scarpitti with an income of $187,881 in 2016 and Van Bynen, $117,162.

But that isn’t an even comparison when one only reports two thirds of his earnings, said Prentice.