Try to focus on the good.

Its Sunday afternoon and its less than 2 days before Christmas.

The last thing on the minds of people in the Town of Milton is a 6.6% tax increase and what the money was spent on. Most people are rushing around from store to store picking up those last minute presents for people on their lists, extra bottles of wine for those unexpected guests, snacks for friends and family to munch on over the holidays and wrapping paper (myself included)…lots of wrapping paper.

I recently received an email from a friend who mentioned “the inmates are now running the asylum” at Town Hall. They had mentioned that taxes were going way too high, slot funds are being uses to balance the budget (Mike notes: which is very risky and a bad precedent to set for the future) and “the community fund is being savaged!”

In the coming entries, I am going to be going through the budget and showing where the money the town is planning to spend is going. There are many worthwhile projects on the docket for 2008 including some more money to improve roads in town and others like a new library on the east side of town. Whether you agree or disagree where the money should go, most people don’t know where ANY money is going.

The tax measures were made official by town council with only Mayor Gord Krantz, Ward 2 Councillor Mike Boughton, Ward 1 Councillor Rick Day and Ward 4 Councillor Paul Scherer voting against the increase.

Which means Regional Councillor Colin Best, Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau, Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray, Ward 1 Councillor Brian Penman, Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson, Ward 3 Councillor Cindy Lunau and the other Regional Councillor Barry Lee all voted for the increase in taxes.  Merry Christmas right?

I know, I know…tis the season.  What needs to be done is a careful look at what the money is being spent on for 2008.

Some examples are $1.4 million for an overpass on Main Street by Milton Mall. I have met with some people who told me that the Town of Milton could have done this project much sooner and for less money a few years back, but those plans were sidelined.

This past year the Town of Milton spent $1.6 million on 4 new buses for Milton Transit. This was an item that was approved last year for the 2007 budget but a decision that should be called into question now seeing how Milton Transit ridership hasn’t increased over the past couple of years. They can show some statistics of increased ridership, but when you really look at the numbers, the increases are due to the Milton Transit “FREE RIDES” days which they have held several times throughout the year. It shows that when the fare’s are full price, the ridership drops back to its previous levels.

Why do I bring up that decision from 2007 budget? There was a further $865,000 in funds allocated to Milton Transit to supposedly purchase more buses. I don’t know about you (and this can be debated ad nausea ) but should’nt the town do more to increase the ridership first before allocating funds for more buses?

There is something wrong with our transit system if the only way we can increase ridership is by making it free. From a business standpoint it makes no sense. Incur expenses while taking in no revenue. Nope, double checked and it doesn’t make sense.

Another topic we can bring up is the Slots revenue from Mohawk. For those in Milton who don’t know, the Town gets a portion of the revenue from Mohawk Raceway just outside of town in Campbelville. Its an agreement that was reached awhile ago and those funds were always to go towards special projects or infrastructure needs of Milton. Apparently the Town of Milton gets roughly $ 5,000,000 from the revenues of the raceway.

That’s just some of the things that I will talk about in the coming days. But for know, I just want to go out and get those stocking stuffers I promised Pat, snacks and wrapping paper (I haven’t even started wrapping presents yet!) and get into the Christmas spirit.To everyone out there, please have a happy holidays and a Merry Christmas. Be safe!