City budget 'fairly middle of the road': Councillor

Torontosun.com
Feb. 5, 2018
By Antonella Artuso

Toronto's executive committee will deal with this year's proposed budget Tuesday which is projected to add about $81 to the average home's property tax bill.

Toronto Councillor Jon Burnside described it as a "fairly middle-of-the-road" budget that balances the need for services like shelter beds and TTC fare cuts for the poor with an equal desire to keep property tax increases to the rate of inflation or lower. The top three expenditures are police, TTC and debt.

"My biggest frustration isn't so much with the budget itself," Burnside, a member of the executive committee, said Monday. "It's more with the process in that people are looking for a made-in-Toronto solution for a lot of problems that are regionally-based."

Toronto is picking up the tab to provide services such as those for the homeless without a contribution from other municipalities, and also to house refugees without enough support from the federal government, he said.

Still, homeowners understand that the city has to keep its budget up with inflation, while residents of apartment buildings will appreciate a zero percent increase, he said. The province has ordered the city to freeze taxes for multi-residential properties but that does not apply to new housing stock.

The City is proposing to raise tax rates by 2.1% for residential properties, 1.05% for commercial properties and 0.7% for industrial properties.

However, that amount gets boosted by a City Building Fund of 0.5% to fund transit and housing, plus an additional 0.29% in a multi-year plan to gradually shift some of the tax burden from businesses to homeowners.

Low-income seniors and disabled people can apply to have their tax increase cancelled or deferred until they no longer own the home, if deemed eligible by the city.

The budget offers some election-style goodies, particularly a two-hour TTC transfer, as well as additional money for enforcement to rub out sex parlours disguised as holistic centres.

The city is also proposing to give low-income residents a break on their TTC fares - an initiative Burnside said he supports.

The Fair Pass program will cost $4.8 million and cut fares by up to one-third for 200,000 low-income transit riders, the city announced Monday.

In a statement, Mayor John Tory said that transit needs to be more affordable and accessible for everyone in the city to allow them to connect with jobs, cultural and economic hubs and their families.

Activists and some councillors have questioned whether the city can afford to hike taxes higher than currently planned to pay for various projects, including more permanent shelter beds and transit.

But Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has accused the Tory administration of "runaway" spending , waste and tax increases at the expense of the city's taxpayers