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Milton tax increase official

Mike Cluett

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 .

Indoor BMX and Skateboard park in Milton?

Mike Cluett

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. 

Support for indoor park hits promising heights

Steve LeBlanc, Canadian Champion Staff
December 11, 2009

It was an afternoon of chills and thrills.

The latter centred around a burgeoning bid to bring an indoor freestyle BMX/skateboard park to town, an idea that’s quickly gained plenty of excitement from local youth.

Amidst sub-zero temperatures, dozens of youngsters and teens took to the outdoor facility beside Memorial Arena Sunday as Kim Hadfield — who’s spearheading the private endeavour — publicly announced her plan.

The park may not be a full-fledged go just yet, but seems to be much more than just a mother’s pipe dream, based on the ground swell of support received since Hadfield’s Facebook page ‘Who wants an indoor skateboard/bmx facility in Milton, Ontario?’ went up a few short weeks ago.

“My three kids all ride and I was getting sick of taking them to C. J.’s (in Etobicoke),” explained the longtime Miltonian, who owns and operates the Brookville Equine Centre (horse farm). “They (kids) put the idea out there of getting an indoor park built in Milton, but to be honest I really had no idea what to expect when I first put it out there.”

Within a few days the Facebook page had been visited by roughly 150 BMX and skateboarding enthusiasts, while the number of area youths rallying around the proposal is now approaching 600.

“I’m super stoked on this idea. Yeah, I’m in for any kind of help needed for building or anything if it’s needed,” posted one supporter.

Said another, “That would be so sick if we could (get indoor park built in town).”

Even more encouraging is the fact that Hadfield already has some financial backing for her prospective park.

Among those that have made preliminary commitments to the project are Toronto-based Want Beverages, which pledges 15 cents of every dollar made to helping build and maintain these types of youth facilities.

The Hadfield-Want relationship was forged through fellow Miltonian Bryden Tait, who now works for the company after recently selling Main Street’s Gearhead.

“We’re all for this project,” stressed Tait, who brought an ample supply of Want drinks for riders and boarders Sunday. “There’s definitely a big need for this in Milton.”

Echoing those sentiments was Campbellville’s Paul Berger, a 27-year-old pro BMXer who’s agreed to help Hadfield design the park.

“There’s not many (parks) around and it’s something this town really needs,” said Berger, who along with fellow adult rider Kevin McLean will lend his expertise to the project.

Tentatively eyeing a warehouse facility along Lawson Road (near Wal-Mart) as a suitable location for the estimated 20,000-square-foot park, Hadfield has also gained some financial support from Focus Skateboards and FigJam Apparel Inc.

Her ultimate vision for the facility which she hopes to open sometime in 2010 — is for it to be a multi-purpose youth drop-in centre that would be partially funded by a nominal user fee for riders and boarders.

“Hopefully sponsorship will pay for most or all of the construction and then I’ll just have to worry about the overhead,” she said, adding, “Even when the weather’s nice there’s some parents who don’t want their kids coming here (outdoor facility) after the armed robbery we had here this past summer. We need somewhere that our children can go and be safe.”

“I’m really excited about this,” said Hadfield’s 14-year-old daughter, Brooke, the youngest of the family’s riders. “I’ve got a lot of friends who BMX and skateboard so we really need an indoor park here.”

Those wishing to support the project can contact Hadfield at miltonindoorpark@hotmail.com .

Regional Council Salary Increase?

Mike Cluett

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.

Tax freeze may not impact raises for Halton staff, councillors

Tim Foran, Metroland West Media Group
December 11, 2009

A zero per cent tax hike budget can be accomplished without freezing wages for Regional employees or council members, according to Halton’s 2010 budget.

The proposed budget, which will go to council for approval this Wednesday, includes money for a possible hike to the salaries and benefits of regional council members of up to 1.5 per cent next year.

That cost-of-living increase, which stems from the recommendations of a civilian committee that reviews council’s compensation, would be about half the average 3.15 per cent salary and benefit increase budgeted for Halton’s own employees.

Compensation for municipal employees makes up a large part of the Region’s proposed $700-million operating budget.

The treasury is budgeting $164 million — more than $1.1 million goes to the 21 regional council members — to cover the cost of wages, benefits, overtime and promotions for its own personnel, a 5.23 per cent increase over this year’s budget.

Approximately half of the Region’s employees, and all of the regional police force, are unionized and the budget includes about 3 per cent increases for their salaries and benefits, based on negotiated collective bargaining agreements and raises given historically.

The City of Toronto, which experienced a strike by its unionized employees this past summer, negotiated just under 2 per cent annual hikes for its staff, excluding police.

Halton Region uses a pay-for-performance system for its non-unionized staff, meaning they generally receive raises in the 0-4 per cent range, according to Treasurer Jane MacCaskill.

The Region has included enough money in its budget to cover about an overall 2 per cent hike for those employees.

Salaries and benefits in the office of Halton’s top bureaucrat, CAO Pat Moyle, are budgeted to rise 8.2 per cent over this year to just under a half-million dollars. The treasurer confirmed much of the $20,000 increase is attributable to the promotion of one of Moyle’s two staff.

As personnel matters are dealt with in private, the salary for Moyle — whose performance is reviewed by a sub-committee of regional councillors — isn’t released until the Province puts out its ‘Sunshine List’ of public service employees making more than $100,000 during the previous year, in the spring.

Moyle earned $250,000 in salary and taxable benefits in 2008.

If the 2010 budget passes, the salaries and benefits for Halton Region’s 20 councillors will have risen an average of 2.4 per cent annually between 2008 and 2010, primarily due to a market adjustment raise they received at the beginning of this year.

Compensation for the current council’s first year in office, in 2007, was approved by the previous council in September 2006. Several of those who approved the compensation were re-elected.

The base salary of a regional councillor before benefits was about $43,000 this year, although they also receive salaries from the lower tier municipalities where they work. The base salary for Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr was about $157,000 in 2009.

Shop MILTON First

Mike Cluett

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.

Please shop local this holiday season

Canadian — and specifically Milton — retailers are hoping for a ‘green’ Christmas this year after weathering (we hope) one of the worst economic years on record. We also hope that local consumers this holiday season think of Milton first when dashing about for their shopping.

This town has a wide variety of stores. Our local merchants could certainly use your patronage.

While shopping in town, you can pause awhile at the many cafes or restaurants. You can take in old-fashioned Christmas displays and appreciate store owners who are proud of the goods they sell and spend the necessary time answering customers’ questions.

Remember, spending dollars locally helps our entire community. Local businesses are the ones that sponsor your child’s soccer team, contribute to the arts and donate to any number of worthy and charitable causes.

The spin-off effects are tremendous.

Also this holiday season, consumers should be in a better mood to spend (at least moderately) than last year as the economic climate continues to improve while interest rates are at a record low.

Milton Town Budget Increasing by 3.24%

Mike Cluett

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.

Ring In 2010 Town of Milton Style

Mike Cluett

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