York Region taxpayers off hook for road tax in 2018

Councillors will take another look at the tax in the spring

Yorkregion.com
Lisa Queen
Dec. 21, 2017

A proposed new York Region road tax won’t be on your property tax bill next year, although it may be coming down the road.

Councillors voted against adding the tax to next year’s budget, the last one before fall’s municipal elections.

Instead, they will look in the spring at the idea of increasing regional taxes an extra one per cent each year for five years, meaning the first time it could be implemented would be on the 2019 tax bill.

The region is as much as $1.5 billion short of the funds needed to pay for its 10-year roads construction budget, leading council to delay 56 roads projects beyond 2031.
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Those delays could be advanced by several years if the road tax was implemented, treasurer Bill Hughes said.

If it had been brought in for the 2018 budget, the regional portion of the property tax bill would have increased 3.77 per cent, rather than by the 2.77 per cent council approved on Dec. 14.

The tax would help ease traffic and gridlock, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti said.

If council doesn’t do something now to correct the problem, commuters will always be “behind the eight ball,” especially as the region continues to grow, he said.

“The second-last thing I would want is to increase taxes, that’s the second-last thing. The last thing I would want to do is for our council (not) to do everything possible to advance transportation infrastructure that is needed in our communities and throughout the region,” he said.

“I know it’s an election year, but I ask you to think beyond 2018. I ask you to think of those people stuck in their cars each and every day in our region. This additional tax burden will not be viewed as the wrong thing. It will be applauded that we are actually doing something positive to advance, not minor roads, but major construction projects that will relieve gridlock in our region.”

But councillors need more information on “the good, the bad and the ugly” of the tax before adopting it, Vaughan Coun. Gino Rosati said, adding property owners are already burdened with many taxes and fees.

The 2.77 per cent increase means the regional portion of the tax bill will result in a tax hike in 2018 of $65 for the average homeowner with a house assessed at $632,000.

The region’s debt hit a peak of $2.9 billion in 2017 and is expected to begin decreasing in 2018.

Highlights in the budget include hiring 12 new paramedics and 14 new police officers, $222 million for roads. $96 million for York Region Rapid Transit Corporation which includes working to extend the Yonge subway to Richmond Hill, $81 million for wastewater infrastructure including the Upper York Sewage Solutions to address growth in East Gwillimbury, Newmarket and Aurora and $72 million for community and health services projects such as the redevelopment of community housing sites in Markham and Vaughan and three new paramedic stations.