Expect to pay about $55 more if draft budget approved

YorkRegion.com
Feb. 25, 2015
Kim Zarzour

Richmond Hill homeowners could face a property tax increase of 2.6 per cent if the town’s draft operating budget is approved by council Monday.

The increase means a resident whose home is worth $600,000 - the average price of a Richmond Hill home - would pay $5,166.

About one quarter of your property tax bill goes to the town. Under the draft budget passed by the budget committee this week, that portion, for the average homeowner, would be $1,373, an increase of $55.34, or 4.2 per cents from 2014.

Not everyone is happy with that increase.

Councillors Godwin Chan and Tom Muench spoke against the draft budget at this week’s budget committee of the whole.

Chan, Ward 6 councillor, expressed concern about news reports stating Richmond Hill’s tax rate is one of the highest in the GTA.

“I’d rather take the time to see how we can better find more efficiencies,” he said.

Ward 2 councillor Muench pointed to Ontario Premier Mike Harris’ Common Sense Revolution and the Bob Rae Days, previous provincial governments that took tougher approaches to budgeting.

“This is about choice; this is about management,” he said, calling on staff and the rest of council to work harder at trimming the budget.

“Absolutely we can spend the farm…[but] we have a responsibility to the do the best that we can based on the choices that we make and we need to work more co-operatively together.”

Mayor Dave Barrow spoke in support of the draft budget, saying the only way to cut the tax rate is to reduce staff, new hires, or municipal services.

“We are doing all the things that people have expressed are important to them.”

Regional Councillor Vito Spatafora agreed.

“Growth doesn’t pay for itself”, he said, referring to a need for new parks, community centres and road infrastructure and the town policy to maintain current standard of services.

“Municipalities are not profit-making centres … We provide services at a subsidized rate.

 “I don’t like taxes any more than anybody else does … We either pay for it now or pay for it later … or pass it on to future generations.”

The budget committee of the whole voted to forward the 2015 draft operating budget to the March 2 special council meeting.