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!

This is an interesting idea. 

Last weekend, I went down to Burlington to take part in an open house for a skateboard school with Anthony.  You see, hes a beginner in the “sk8ter” world and I thought it would be fun to go.  When we got there, the place was full of kids doing their tricks under the watchful eyes of the schools trainers.  While Anthony was ripping it up (is that really a term…I dont know.  Im just a DAD whos trying to be hip and “kewl”) I had a chance to talk with the schools owner Jody Eagan (Skateboard and Inline Skate School) and I asked him if there was a chance he would expand to Milton.

He’s tried on a number of occasions, unsuccessfully, to get something done in Milton.  There are a number of parents in Milton, who like myself, will be taking their kids to this school to help teach them the basics of skateboarding, and how to do it safely.

As many of the parents in town wonder…what WILL my kid do when he/she gets bigger.  There seems to be very little for kids in their teens to do in this growing town.  Some people have suggested bowling alley’s which are very expensive to start up and trends showing participation in the sport beginning to dwindle.  What will our teenagers do?  Hang out at the movie theatre?  Thats good for maybe one day a week.  What of the other 6?

This type of park is exactly what Milton needs to give kids a place to go, learn a sport like skateboarding and BMX’ing, and hang out with friends in a supervised environment.

Email miltonindoorpark@hotmail.com and show your support!

In today’s Champion there is an article about exactly this. 

Despite the fanfare of having a proposed 0% increase for the Region of Halton, their pay might be going up!

Even though Region of Halton staff has gone through their budget line item by line item finding all the necessary cuts to services and programs to ensure there is a politically favourable 0% increase, they still found an opportunity to have an allowance for their salaries and benefits to go up to 1.5% according to Tim Foran at the Milton Canadian Champion. 

This is what frustrates taxpayers to no end.  2009 hasnt been the greatest year.  Just looking at Milton alone, 3 major employers in the Town of Milton have closed up shop putting hundreds of people out of work.  We have all experienced in some way someone that we know who has lost their job due to the economy.  There are some signs to show we are slowly making our way through this global downturn but we are not out of the woods yet.  Many economists say it will be the middle of 2011 before we get back to “normal” in our ways.

Yet…the public service gets a raise.  As I’ve said in the past many times, I am not against paying someone a fair wage or salary.  Our public officials are probably in the most underpaid/overworked industry in our country.

I hope the elected officials around the table realize what people will think if they approve this increase.  Despite the fact a citizens committee made the recommendation, Regional Council CAN say NO…that will send a message.  That committee can come back and say to increase their pay by 100%, they can still say NO.

Take that increase to salaries for council members and put it to something else, and still end up with their desired 0% increase.

Show some common sense and leadership! 

To see the executive summary of the 2010 Region of Halton budget, go to pages 20 and 22 of the document.  If you’d like to look at the entire budget document for Halton (its a big file) go here.

This is just too incredible to believe.

Carolyn Parrish strikes again

Mississauga councillor in eye of storm after restaurant meltdown

By DON PEAT AND MARK BONOKOSKI, TORONTO SUN

The Milton Canadian Champion has an interesting editorial on the benefits of shopping local, more specifically Milton.

Despite what some people think, Milton has everything to offer from the smallest of gifts to the big ticket items.  Its worth checking out what Milton has, especially in our downtown core.  Just imagine going Christmas shopping and finding all that you need.  Lets take downtown for instance.

Anyone with a knitter in the family (and there are a lot of knitters out there) they can go to see Carolyn at Main Street Yarns at Carriage Square Mall.  While there you can drop into Coffee Culture and have one of their amazing brews of coffees and teas.  Another good choice is Pasqualino’s Cafe & Bistro.  If youre shopping for a loved one and are looking for flowers….Oceana Whispers is the best choice for quality flowers, excellent presentation and wonderful one on one service.  If youre looking for some high quality leather goods or shoes, you can go to Milton Shoes and Leather Centre.

If youre hungry while shopping there are a number of places to eat along Main Street from The Ivy Arms to Thai House Cuisine.  In the need of a hair cut, you can go to either Mike the Barber or Tony’s Barber Shop.  Your printer run out of ink or need some specialty paper for your Christmas cards, Harris Office Pro.

Endless choices for everyone.  If you need to buy a computer for your kids, or just service the one you have, Crave Systems is a great place for all of those needs.

And Im just hitting the tip of the iceburg.  There are hundreds more stores to go to find exactly what you need for the holiday season.

For the record, no one listed here has paid for anything.

You can go to www.downtownmilton.com for a full listing of businesses that can serve you.  If anyone has any other companies they would like to promote…let me know.  Feel free to comment as well.

Lets make it a great holiday season for Milton retailers.

UPDATE 2:58pm…

For the record folks, I love it when people post comments on the blog. It shows there’s an active interest in what I’ve got to say.

Normally I allow any post on here unless its spam.

I know the idea of tax increases isn’t the most popular topic and it usually meets with a more emotional response than let’s say what’s going on at town hall on New Years Eve.

What I won’t post is comments with excessive swearing or nasty personal attacks against anyone. I’ve deleted a few comments already today and will continue to do so. I love free speech but when you get nasty and personal against anyone, the comment goes.

I love constructive comments and keep them coming. Its good debate that will drive good policy in the future.

Thanks everyone! – Mike

Just before midnight last night, Milton Town Council approved the 2010 captial and operating budgets and will bring it to council on December 14th for ratification.

There are normally 2 days set aside for budget deliberations and the first session usually goes into the wee hours of the morning, but as budget chair Brian Penman said “we do our best work before 11pm”

I personally arrived after 9pm to a slightly empty gallery for the public which surprised me.  I know sitting down and discussing capital projects and per centages of development charges isnt the most “exciting” way to spend a Monday night in Milton but judging from what people had told me about this years budget, I thought there would be more people attending.

Wondering aloud last night, I would really like to know what the cost would be to stream these budget and council meetings would be.  The Region of Halton has the ability to stream its meetings and keep an archive as well.  How much do you pay for bandwith right?  Thats another story.

Getting back to the meeting, it seemed that very few had things to say about the contents of the capital budget with the exception of Paul Scherer, councillor for ward 4.  As each division of the town got its say for how much money they requested, Paul had a few things to say about each of them.  The biggest point he wanted to make was to move the project for expansion of Louis St Laurent from Bronte Street to Regional Road 25 up from 2011 to 2010.  The few of us in the crowd chuckled with Paul asked “can we afford both”  By both he was talking about the Main Street grading project that for several years now has been put on the back burner and postponed.  These postponments have essentially increased the costs of the project and it needs to be done.  Paul wanted to know if they could do both projects in 2010 instead of Main Street in 2010 and Louis St Laurent in 2011.

The gallery chuckled slightly after looking at a few spreadsheets on her computer,  Linda Leeds, the treasurer calmy replied…”Yes!”  The additional cost?  $5.9 million. 

This cost wouldnt be taken on by the taxpayer as projects like this are funded from development charges that are paid by builders, and not residential rate payers.

Colin Best, regional councilor, brought up some property issues near that intersection and wanted to wait until the town finalized ownership before moving ahead the project.  There were some issues with Lower Base Line bridge a couple of years back where the project was approved but the town didnt own some property, therefore a bridge to nowhere.

In the end, the project will move forward.  This means that residents who live on the west side of town by Bronte Street and Derry will have another outlet out of town instead of just Derry Road.  With the underpass construction also moved up by the Region, it means that these two projects might be going on at the same time, handcuffing local residents.

What got more people involved in the budget discussion was the operating  side of things.  This is the budget that affects us as taxpayers, seeing how these items are funded by the property taxes we pay.

Town Staff had come in with a potential tax increase of 4.9% but were asked to see what can be removed/postponed to get to a “more reasonable” increase of 2.9%

Transit was a hot issue as usual.  Paul Scherer said that he supported the idea of transit but right now its not working properly and questioned the additional expenditures.  Councillors Wendy Schau stated that this type of investment in transit was vital to the growth in Milton.  Especially our young children need to start using transit so “they will get used to it” as they get older.  Councillor Jan Mowbray and Cindy Lunau also joined in with the support of the new routes, fare collection system as well as moving up new route designs for 2010.  In a close vote, it passed and the new routes on the west side of town are a go ahead.  There is also going to be an increase the in fares for a ride from $2.00 per ride to $2.50 and if you get ten ride tickets, it goes from $20 to 22 starting in the new year.

Library was another issue that got the discussion going as potential cuts to staff at the Beaty Branch and reduced hours were on the block for 2010.  Jan Mowbray said it didnt make sense to open a library and then begin to cut the staff right away.  Again, in a close vote the motions to keep the cuts stayed.

Those were the highlights and again, I wasnt there all night and didnt see Linda’s presentation to council of the budget.  In the end the budget has been increased by 3.24% for 2010.

I dont envy the people in this process one bit.  There are some hard decisions that have to be made in order to limit the impact on the taxypayer in Milton.  I found Paul to be the most vocal when it came to asking questions of staff as to why these increases are needed and asked for other members of council to comment as well.

Here is the link to the Town of Milton’s budget page to see the links for 2010, 2009 and other budget documents.

On another point, it was nice to see Melanie Hennessey from the Milton Canadian Champion back in the press box after her time away with her son.  Not that I didnt like Tim (because I do) but its good to see Melanie back!  Look for her report on the budget in the Champion later this week.

From www.milton.ca Milton residents and visitors are invited to help Mayor Gord Krantz ring in 2010. An informal gathering will take place around the historic bell in Victoria Park on New Years Eve!

Bruce Carlin of the Milton Historic Society has been chosen to ring the bell to bring in 2010. As you will see by the information below, the honour of ringing the bell has been given to some great Miltonians.

As well, the very next day at the New Years Levee, the town of Milton will be honouring the next 7 inductee’s into Miltons WALK OF FAME.

They include the following.

Matthew Banks, Actor (HINT: You might know him from the BLUE MAN GROUP!)

Gail Brown, Scottish Bag Pipe Player

Father Mark Curtis, Musician

Dr. Clarkson Freeman, Surgeon

 Bob Izumi, Professional Angler and Author

Peter “Hard Rock” McMullen, Professional Wrestler

Dr WM Edgar Robertson, Missionary Doctor

As an avid reader (and participant) in my daily travels to the Hawthorne Villager, the topic of growth is one that never seems to die down.  Some like it and some dont.  Some want it to stop now that they’re living here and some accept it as inevitable change.

Growth in Milton, as with other municipalities is mandated by the Province.  They produce guidelines and directions for the town and its up to the local council to marry those needs with reality.  There are number of projects being worked on within our borders that will contribute to that growth, such as the Derry Green Business Park east of James Snow Parkway and the intensification of Main Street from JSP to Bronte Street.  There have been a lot of numbers thrown around from 150,000 to 175,000 and even up to over 300,000!!!

At a recent Chamber of Commerce breakfast, the Town Planner Bill Mann told the business community at large the population of Milton could reach anywhere from 300,000 to 350,000 in the coming years.  This doesnt mean we’ll be at that point anytime soon as there are many decades worth of development to go through to get to that.

I found those comments, which are detailed by Tim Foran at the Milton Canadian Champion article, interesting along with a letter to the editor against growth in Milton.

Here is the letter by Linda Arone.

DEAR EDITOR:

My husband and I met in 2002. At that time I lived in Mississauga and he lived in Vaughan.

Our dates and weekend getaways were always in the Milton area, at conservation parks, tourist farms, farmers’ market, etc. We loved the quiet charm, the small-town culture and the friendly people of Milton.

In 2006, when we got married, our obvious decision was to purchase a home in Milton. To our disappointment, this town has continued to grow beyond its capacity, and I find myself sitting in more traffic now than ever before and being cut off by extremely inconsiderate and aggressive drivers.

So as a relatively new resident of Milton, I feel for the Miltonians of 20-plus years ago, but I also sympathize with all the newcomers who had hoped to start a new life in the lovely, close-knit and safe little town we used to know as Milton.

LINDA ARONE, MILTON

Nothing to do this Friday night?  How about head to Downtown Milton where a selected number of businesses will be opening for some late night Christmas shopping.  I’ll try to get a list of ALL the merchants who will be open during this time but a good friend of mine Judy over at Oceana Whispers (THE best place for flowers in Milton!) sent me this invitation!

Oceana Whispers is located at 13 Charles Street (beside the Royal Canadian Legion) Unit 104 in downtown Milton.  If you are looking to get out of the dog house or give some holiday cheer to a loved one, Judy’s selection is outstanding and quality is second to none!  Check out Judy’s blog here as well as on Facebook.  Just tell her I sent you

Along with Oceana Whispers, stores like Milton Shoes and Leather Centre (in Carriage Square) and A Country Mile will be open until 11pm.  Late night shopping with special pricing as well.  Downtown Milton cant be beat!

The rain came down last night but that didnt damper the spirits of over 10 people who attended a town hall-style meeting at the Milton Sports Centre put on by Regional Councilor Colin Best on the upcoming budgets for Halton and Milton.

There were lots of questions given to Colin regarding different items on the budget including the increased investment in transit for new buses, plans for new routes and improvements to service.  The Arts and Entertainment centre / Public Library was also discussed with the added investments from both the provincial and federal levels of government…stimulus funding.

In order to get these projects funded, they have to be shovel ready and be completed by March 2011.  Plans are also underway with that extra funding for enhancements to Tonelli area as well as the Nassagawaya Tennis Club.

Other items on the docket were the Region of Halton’s proposal for a 0% increase to the 2010 budgets and how they can do it.  It seems great that 0% is being discussed but when you look at the economy the way it is now, and how slow our recovery might be in the coming years does that mean 0% in 2010 and a higher increase in 2011?

This was the first time Colin held a meeting like this so we really didnt know what to expect but it was great to see new faces of people who are genuinely interested in the direction the town and the region is going with funding of certain projects.

I’ve always said that these types of meetings are vital to ensuring a higher level of communication between the tax payer and government.  Now you might say only 10 people showed up but thats a start.  Its been said that some councillors have tried to have these meetings and it hasnt worked out.  This isnt something that you “try” to do, its something that you MUST do.

The days of quarterly newsletters to the public are over.  If in fact they ever existed here in Milton (I’ve never received anything other than the Town of Milton newsletter) that way of doing things isnt being as effective as it once was.

You would have to be living under a rock the last few years to see the impact of “social networking” on our lives as there are not many people I know that arent participating at some level with Facebook, MySpace and Twitter just to name a few.  As you can see by the right hand column, I am one of those and you can contact me here, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter as well.  This is something that public officials need to get a grasp on in order to communicate with voters.

Some councillors have/had websites during their campaigns but most havent updated it since then, or its for information purposes only.  Colin Best has a site with his contact information and some links to current issues we’re facing.  Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray has a pretty active site that is updated with current information on whats going on in the area, town council and local events.  A quick search on Google shows there is only a few councillors who have websites.  Ward 3 Councillor Cindy Lunau has one…but it hasnt been updated since Oct 2006 as well as regional councillor Barry Lee, Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau among others.  Some councillors did have sites but are now gone. 

These tools are not just election tools and have to be used all the time.

Dont get me wrong…thats not the only solution though.  Call me old school, but I still feel elected officials need to get out there and continue to knock on doors in between elections.  It makes a difference as it shows you are accessible and not just waiting until the next time a vote comes along to meet with people one on one.

Ive spoken with other councillors past and present and some have come to the same conclusion as town halls…”I tried and it didnt work.”  Again, it’s not something that you think about doing or try a couple of times.  It has to become a habit.  I know of many federal and provincial elected officials, despite having high-profile ministries to run, still took the time to hit the doors and meet with people to get feedback and it was met with positive results.

Thinking back to the last municipal campaign, the common theme of many of my conversations with people was that they didnt know who their councillor was or the fact they’ve never heard from them after the election.  With dwindling voter turnout over the last several years…at all levels…something has to change in order to get people more motivated and into local politics.

The by-election in Ward 2 in 2007 garnered only 20% voter turnout.  The results were similar here in Ward one in 2006 with roughly 26% of people coming out to vote.  It’s this level of government that impacts us the most directly and we dont take advantage of that ability.  You can pick up the phone and call your councillor and reach them directly (seeing how they dont have any staff) and ask a question, yet many people dont take advantage of it.

Communication is a two-way street.  There has to be an effort on both sides of the equation in order to get the flow of information and have people involved.  It is imperative that our councillors, both at the region and the town, do a better job of getting in front of voters.  Conversely it’s also just as important for voters…you and I… to want to get involved and find out whats going on.  Too many times we find out about tax increases or new fees by reading the local paper or hearing it from a neighbour. 

So while only 10 people showed up at this meeting, I would call it a success and a definite step in the right direction.  I hope that other councillors would start doing the same thing and stick with it.  Thanks again to Colin for taking the time and the effort in helping educate voters on these complicated budget matters and hopefully we are going to see a trend starting…not just during the next year (election year) but beyond.

There IS an election coming next year and its a great question to ask anyone who comes to your door asking for your support and vote…how are you going to communicate with me?  Another question to ask is how can I help you communicate better with me?