Update to Region Councillor Salary Hike

Its gone!

Yep, thats what I said.  Gone.  Halton Regional council, in a last minute amendment to the budget removed the salary raise they would have received (amounting to roughly $17,000 in total) and remains a 0 % increase.

While the amount might look to some as minimal it does go a long way to letting taxpayers know that they should be the primary concern when it comes to taxes.

It looks like they listened to the people who sent them emails, called them and by the comments on my blog entry a few days back, no one was happy about paying them more.  One of the most interesting comments from the article is from Tom Adams, who is a regional councillor for Oakville and former Green Party candidate federally. 

He said that council was second guessing the citizens committee who made the recommendation.  From what I understand, and please correct me if Im wrong, the citizens committee makes a recommendation.  That is not saying its something that has to be done.  So council can at anytime say no to that recommendation.

Dictionary.com defines “recommend” as:

to advise, as an alternative; suggest (a choice, course of action, etc.) as appropriate, beneficial, or the like

Its not second guessing the committee at all.  I appreciate the fact that this committee exists and it should continue in making its suggestions for local governments, but the beauty about it is that council CAN say NO.

As Burlington councillor John Talyor said, its not political games, it’s the taxpayers money.

I for one am very glad this didnt go through.  I could only wish the same could be said for the Town of Milton in the recent budget.

Here’s the story from the Champion.

Zero tax hike budget passed
By Tim Foran, Metroland West Media Group
Dec 18, 2009

The elimination of any salary hike for regional councillors was a last-minute change to Halton’s $1.1 billion 2010 budget approved Wednesday. The changes, proposed by council’s budget review committee Monday, won’t change the overall requested tax levy, meaning there will be no increase next year in property taxes for regional services, which include items such as police, ambulance and regional roads maintenance. There will also be no increases in water rates, which are paid by Halton residents on their electricity bills. Staff achieved the zero tax and rate increases in part by instituting a freeze on tax-supported new hires, except for police personnel, and keeping the number of municipal staff at 2008 levels.

Read more here