Сообщение
Старый Ко » Ср апр 25, 2007 10:18 am
Вчера были комментарии по этому поводу.
О том что повышение налога на землю самое высокое за всю историю Торонто. И что это все-таки выше инфляционного роста.
Сказали, что Витби и Брамптон задрали налог еще больше.
Apr 24, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Byers
city hall bureau chief
Faced with an enormous budget crisis, Toronto city councillors had a chance to save taxpayers money and take a whack at some of their perks of power.
But when all was said and done, after an hour of going over everything from free coffee and juice at council meetings to free passes to city golf courses and the Toronto Zoo, council adopted a $7.8 billion operating budget yesterday that left all their goodies intact.
This despite a warning from city manager Shirley Hoy just last week that the city has "hit the wall" financially, thanks to years of draining reserves – and the cold shoulder the city has gotten from the province on its demand for $71 million in social-service funding.
With Mayor David Miller firmly in control of the budget process preceding Friday's full-council debate and yesterday's vote, that the budget would go through unscathed was close to a fait accompli.
So it was Councillor Rob Ford's annual budget-cut performance that proved the most captivating part of yesterday's debate. A renowned penny pincher, Ford has been trying for seven years to get fellow politicians to cut back on at least some of their many perks.
The councillor for Ward 2 (Etobicoke North) came agonizingly close to winning one vote yesterday, but his motion to deny councillors free passes for city-owned golf courses – worth an estimated $15,000 per year – lost on a 22-22 vote.
"They're all just self-serving individuals," he said of fellow councillors. "You saw the greed there. They blame the province (for the city's financial problems) but they still won't cut one cent of their own perks."
Council voted 27-15 in favour of an operating budget that will see owners of single-family homes hit with a 3.8 per cent tax hike; about $81 on the average Toronto home. Owners of commercial, industrial and multi-residential properties will pay 1.267 per cent more in property taxes.
The budget calls for one last massive raid on the city's legally accessible reserves, which officials say are down to their last dimes.
City politicians also voted to stick to their plan to take the province to court over what they say is a missing $71 million payment on certain social-service costs. They tacked on another motion yesterday, voting to send Queen's Park a bill for $698 million to cover the cost of downloaded provincial programs the city has been stuck paying for since 1998.
Ford claimed his 45 suggestions for budget cutting could save $100 million and avoid the tax hike altogether.
But they didn't impress Councillor Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale). Ford, she said, makes a big show of his budget proposals on the council floor but doesn't roll up his sleeves during the budget process.
"I think that he's chosen frivolous things, and I think that he makes a mockery of the whole budget process," she said. "So out of $9-whatever-billion he makes a joke, and I don't think it's very funny."
Suggestions included cutting staff at the city and at all city agencies, boards and commissions (except police) by 2 per cent and freezing salaries for non-union employees.
Ford also said the city could save $59,000 by not giving out up to three bottles of wine a day to people in the city's harm-reduction program at the Seaton House shelter. And he rankled fellow councillors by suggesting an end to a series of free passes, a $40,000 media-clipping service and a $77,000 program to water plants in city buildings.
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