LEVY: Inflationary tax hike? Could have fooled me

Torontosun.com
Feb. 3, 2019
Sue-Ann Levy

I always wince when I hear the city’s finance officials and our Toronto politicians talk incessantly that all they’re handing us is an “inflationary” tax hike in each successive annual budget.

They repeat the word “inflationary” ad nauseum -- no doubt believing if they say it enough, taxpayers will believe them.

This year I find the use of the word particularly offensive.

It’s not just the sleight of hand that has been done yet again in 2019 by blending the 2.55% residential tax hike with the much lower commercial, industrial and multi-residential increases -- all of which remain low due to government policies and regulations.

Yes, we heard, the blended tax hike is a mere 1.8% when, in fact, residential taxpayers will be seeing upwards of a $104 increase on a home assessed at $665,600 -- the low end in a city where housing prices are out of control.

But wait. That 2.55% tax hike does not include an extra 0.5% levy that will go towards a capital fund for transit and housing projects -- a multi-year tax which was approved in 2017 and conveniently not mentioned at the budget launch last week.

But what really gets me, and this year is hardly any exception, is that our politicians hope we forget that the property tax increase is not the only tax hike we face.

It was back in the David Miller years that the garbage and water rates were pulled off the property tax bill and are now charged separately. The original intent was to make the property tax bill appear artificially lower.

But all successive councils and bureaucrats did was use the extra room to add more staff and programs, hoping we wouldn’t notice.

In the case of Mayor John Tory -- as he moves further to the left to appease the loudest voices on council and their supporters -- the money has flowed to politically-correct programs, new layers of bureaucracy to make it appear like he’s on top of key files and soft services, while the infrastructure repair backlog grows larger and larger, along with the debt.

The city’s proposed 2019 budget was unveiled at City Hall on Jan. 28, 2019. (Stan Behal, Toronto Sun)

Residential property owners will  be hit this year by a garbage fee increase of 2.2% and a water rate hike of 3%. City officials have also dreamed up another cash grab -- dressed in the guise of giving homeowners the incentive to divert more waste. They are phasing out the rebate they originally gave to property taxpayers who took the medium and small garbage bins.

This year that will add $96 to the cost of a medium bin and $72 to a small bin.

This notion of giving homeowners more of an incentive to divert their waste is a pile of nonsense. According to the city’s own figures, the diversion rate for residents in single-family homes is already at 66%. The problem rests, and has for years rested, with multi-residential buildings which has a paltry diversion rate of 28%.

So removing the rebate for homeowners is not only duplicitous but downright punitive.

We also heard that in addition to the 10-cent TTC fare hike, residents will see up to a 4% increase in some community and recreation centre programs. Finance officials told us last week it will depend on the program.

And where is all this extra cash going?

All told, new funding of $178.2-million will go to poverty reduction and “well-being,” including 400 additional shelter spaces.

As we heard at council from Paul Raftis, general manager of shelter, support and housing general manager, the homeless budget will jump from $260 million to $313 million this year (as if council should be proud of the move to spend more money on Band-Aids that increase the cycle of dependency.)

Some $6.7 million in new funding is being allocated to Youth violence intervention, community healing and other programs (with no accountability) that are supposed to allegedly convince young people not to join gangs.

Public health will get an extra $710,000  for community outreach for harm reduction clients. I guarantee you that’s not to solve any issues with lawlessness around safe injection sites.

Red-light camera expansion is getting an extra $201,400 and $568,300 will go to Tory’s Transit Expansion Office (not including the $200,000-plus czar who will head it up.)

The extras this year -- along with the investments from Tory’s last term amount to $308-million in total, all of which will be funded by that “inflationary” tax hike.

I wish once, just once, the politicians and bureaucrats would be honest about what they’re really charging us.

A cash grab here and a cash grab there -- it all adds up.