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.
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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 .