Last Monday night at Town Hall the 2010 captial and operating budgets were approved for a total increase in budget of 3.24%.
As Melanie Hennessey of the Champion outlines in her article today, it passed, but not unanimously. Both Councillor Mike Boughton and Mayor Gord Krantz voted against the budget because the rate of increase was higher than the rate of inflation.
Good for them!
Mayor Krantz also outlined during the meeting that taxes have gone up about 17% in this term of council alone. This amounts to roughly $120 per household in the last 4 years. Although Jan Mowbray stated that Milton has something to show for those increases, the amount is still quite high over a 4 year term.
Jan mentioned that she voted for the budget regretably because it didnt include an increase to service for the new library to include Sunday hours. Mea Culpa….my family uses that library quite often and is a wonderful place dont get me wrong. Am I or other taxpayers willing to accept even more tax increases to pay for 7 day a week service? Highly unlikely.
Im sure if you had put the question to Miltonian’s BEFORE hand if they wanted a new arts and entertainment centre the answer might not have been what they were looking for. That project was moved up in order to take advantage of the federal/provincial stimulus funding and rushed through. There are quite a few better places in town for the centre, and Im quite sure that Thompson and Main isnt going to be the best location.
Overall, I would concure with the Mayor and Councillor Boughton that this budget could have been better and that the rate of increase should have been closer to the rate of inflation. As our town growns we need to prioritize our spending. Would it be nice to have 7 day a week service for the library? Absoultely. It would be great if we could keep it open 24 hours. Is it a priority right now? No its not. Maybe down the road when the rate of growth doesnt increase as much and there is more of a tax base available we can look at it then, but not right now.
There are a lot of “would like to have’s” in town. We would like to have a lot of things, but there simply isnt enough money for everything that we want. We as a town have to look at what is NEEDED and then prioritize those needs and focus on them.
Here’s the article… once again welcome back Melanie!
Council approves 3.24% tax hike
Melanie Hennessey, Canadian Champion Staff
December 16, 2009
Residents will dish out about $25 more for Town services next year now that Milton council has approved a 3.24 per cent tax hike for 2010.
The increase and the Town’s $149-million budget were given the go-ahead by council at its meeting Monday night. This translates into an extra $24.96 in Town taxes for urban residents and $20.82 for those in the rural area on a home assessed at $300,000.
Of the total budget, property taxes will cover between $28 and $29 million. Much of the municipality’s revenue is money collected from developers as well as funding provided by the provincial and federal governments.
About $70 million of the budget will cover next year’s operating expenses, while more than $78 million is slated for capital projects — the largest capital budget that’s ever been approved by council.
Funding has been allocated for 77 new projects, including $36 million in land and buildings, $32 million in roads and $5 million in parks and trails.
The capital program is being boosted by stimulus money coming from the upper levels of government. The Town has been approved for $33.5 million in stimulus cash, which allows it to advance five major projects that weren’t originally scheduled to start until 2011 or later. The projects include a new visual arts centre and central library and an expansion to the Milton Sports Centre. They must be built by March 31, 2011 under stimulus funding rules.
The budget was supported by the majority of council, with the exception of Ward 2 Councillor Mike Boughton and Mayor Gord Krantz.
Boughton told the Champion after the meeting that he voted against the budget because the tax increase for next year is above the rate of inflation.
“I stated earlier this year that I wouldn’t go any higher than the rate of inflation, and I’m standing by that principle,” he said.
Krantz, who has long been a supporter of keeping tax increases at the rate of inflation, shared similar sentiments. He also pointed out to council that it has increased local residents’ taxes by almost $120 in its term of office, or about 17 per cent.
“It’s very easy for us to say it’s only five or 10 cents more on this or that, but it builds up to $120,” he said. “That’s pretty huge, and it compounds itself.”
Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray contended the extra $120 has helped with things like creating a branch library and hiring more full-time firefighters.
“We’ve got something to show for it,” she said.
Mowbray voted in favour of the budget, but with reservations, she said. The budget didn’t include extra library hours, which she said residents were calling for. “The public wants more for what their tax dollars are giving them.”
At last week’s budget committee meeting, councillors were presented with a proposed 2.98 per cent tax increase by staff. The committee voted to include an extra $70,000 in the operating budget for transit service enhancements, bringing the tax increase up to 3.24 per cent.
The transit improvements include a high school tripper program that’s catered to afternoon school bell times and higher frequency service levels on prime transit routes.
The committee also supported advancing construction of Louis St. Laurent Boulevard from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 — work that wasn’t slated to get underway until 2011. It added about $6 million to the 2010 capital budget.
Motions to include the transit initiatives and the roadwork were made by Ward 4 councillors Wendy Schau and Paul Scherer respectively.
* * *
Top 5 projects
• Milton Sports Centre expansion — $12.7 million
• Arts and entertainment centre construction — $8.1 million
• Main Street grade separation at railroad tracks — $7.9 million
• Bronte Street reconstruction from Louis St. Laurent Boulevard to Derry Road — $6.4 million
• Louis St. Laurent Boulevard construction from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 — $5.9 million.
Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com .
[…] Continue reading this column at Mike Cluett’s Milton Blog […]
While I agree with your comments that it was good that someone on council voted against the budget, I would like to add some further commentary.
I too was at the budget meeting and saw them zip through it quicker than a hot knife through butter.
Normally this process takes two days and goes into the wee hours of the morning but they seemed to be in a hurry. There was really only one councillor Paul Scherer that was talking about reducing the budget and trying to find savings. Even though he did push through the LSL to Bronte Street construction, that is on the capital side of things and can be dealt with development charges (provided they dont reduce them).
Councillor Mowbray is a different story. She, along with Council Wendy Schau and Councillor Lunau, kept pushing for more spending on items like transit and the library. Jan talked about hearing from people that they want Sunday library hours. The thing is we cant afford it. Maybe when things stablize with growth we can look at it, but as for now, it shouldnt be a priority.
Council shouldnt be looking for ways to spend more just for the sake of spending.
I like the way you think Mike and I look forward to hopefully being able to vote for you next time around. Council needs a fresh voice and I think you are it.
Thanks for your comments. I agree with you regarding the priorities of spending.
While its nice to say we would like to have this or that, the question is can the town afford it. There needs to be some priorities put into place.
Like many of us taxpayers, we all have wants and needs. We look at our budgets every year and decide what we spend our money on. Of course the needs are put first into priority, followed by the wants.
Out of the needs, we have to establish if it is essential to the community. Major services are looked at and prioritized and if anything is left over, we can look at the wants.
There are other municipalities who have things like Sunday library service and while I would like nothing better than to have it…it simply isnt a priority right now. Ive had people tell me that “Mississauga has it, why cant we?”
In terms of growth, Milton right now is where Mississauga was in 1975 in terms of growth. Do you honestly think that Mayor Hazel wouldve wanted 7 day a week librarys over other priorities in the city? Her answer would probably be filled with a few Don Cherry like explitives as well.
As the pace of growth slows (it will never slow down) we can look at these kinds of wants more seriously. Right now out tax bases cant afford these frills without drastic increases.
Are you willing to pay more, albeit only a few dollars more per year for extras like Sunday hours at the library? If so, let me know. But I dont think Im too off base with this one.
Jan is a funny lady. Really nice person, dont get me wrong but she simply doesnt GET IT that people do not want to have them spend more money. I dont know who shes talking to, but I know I dont want it right now. Like you said, its a want, not a need.
I hear Jan’s running for Regional Council next time around. God help us if she wins becuase it will mean more money being spent that we dont have.
Mike I love your blog.
I for one agree with you on priorities. We cant have everything right away because the tax base right now cant support it.
Im not against raising taxes if I see value. I dont see the value in longer library hours or more empty buses running through the streets.
Everyone seems to have an agenda and seeing how next years an election year youre going to see more of them standing up and saying something.
Thanks for a great blog!