Vaughan residents likely to pay 3% more on 2018 tax bills

Budget not final, but don't expect council to budge on number

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 7, 2017
By Tim Kelly

Is a three-per-cent tax hike for Vaughan taxpayers reasonable or unreasonable?

Depends who you ask.

Those round the council table, with the lone exception possibly of Regional Coun. Gino Rosati, seemed content Monday night at a public finance committee meeting with asking Vaughan taxpayers to pay three per cent more on their tax bills in 2018. That figure amounts to a $56 increase for the average homeowner on the Vaughan portion of your tax bill. It doesn't include a 9.9-per-cent increase on your water and wastewater bill, an extra $8.33 per month for the average homeowner.

Rosati made a motion to ask finance staff to come back with budget option increases of 2.75, 2.5 and 2.25 per cent but the motion failed. Seems like three per cent is the number.

Or is it?

Vaughan resident Richard Lorello pointed out that last year, when all was said and done, instead of being revenue-neutral as the budget attempts to be, the city wound up taking in $7.1 million more than expected and spending $8.5 million more than it budgeted, for a net deficit of $1.4 million according to city figures. $700,000 was taken from two different reserve funds to make up the difference and make the budget balance.

"So, is this a good budget or a bad budget?" Lorello asked. "We don't really know and we won't know until next year."

Perhaps in anticipation that final figures on the city's balance sheet won't be available until the new year, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Laura Mirabella asked that final council approval of the budget not be made until January instead of late November. That was granted, as was a request originally made by Lorello that a York Region official come to Vaughan council and explain and discuss the region's budget.

The tax increase isn't final. The Region of York, which makes up the majority portion of your property tax bill, introduces its own budget on Nov. 16 and expects to pass it on Dec. 14. The Region of York, the Province of Ontario's education budget and the City of Vaughan together make up your annual property tax bill.