milton canadian champion

Talk about future tax increases

Mike Cluett

A number of friends have sent me an email to let me know a letter to the Milton Canadian Champion editorial department was printed in this Friday’s paper. Thanks to everyone who noticed.

The letter is pretty much word for word what my last posting talked about and I’ve received a number of emails from people all over the town supporting my thoughts. What seems to get me the most is that there doesnt seem to be a sense of urgency on council to say “hey…this is wrong. We need to fix this now!”

There hasn’t been many voices on council talking about this. After this story was printed I had expected to read a few responses from councillors around the table with their views on the potential increase. Nothing.

Another week passes…still nothing. Why is the question? Why wouldn’t these individuals, trusted by the votes of Milton residents for a four year period NOT want to say something? Why isn’t there any outrage or a showing of concern at the impact this potential (and some would say inevitable) tax increase on people in Milton.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that things aren’t going swimmingly for our economy, and those of our neighbours to the south the United States. Gas is at all time highs and bouncing up and down on a weekly basis, putting incredible pressure on our budgets. The cost of food is increasing for many items in the store which lead to a further tightening of the belts. It just seems no one cares. Its all going to work itself out and the council will accept whatever town staff dishes out.

Some councillors in the past like Paul Schere and Colin Best (among some others) have been very vocal about what council is doing with the budgets, spending and other programs. Where are the voices now?

Is this catastrophic? Will this lead us down into the depths of dispair? Not likely. From an email I received last week, I was told I was being a bit too melodramatic with the potential impact of high municipal tax increases. Not so, because the Town is just one portion of the tax bill.

Town Council seems to forget there are 2 other levels of municipal government that have been sharpening their pencils to take more money out of the ONE taxpayer. The Region of Halton is also projecting a tax INCREASE and school boards (both public and separate) are getting ready to do the same.

We are only one taxpayer. There are numerous levels of government lining up to take what they feel they need to do the business of the “people”. Governments at all levels tax, tax and tax, but they fail to remember its just one taxpayer.

As the cost of everything continues to go up, and confidence in the economy for the short and long term begin to wane…tax increases are going to be a further kick in the shins to people in Halton, Milton and across Canada.

It seems to be an exercise in futility but everyone needs to do what they can to let Milton Town Council know that more needs to be done. Tax increases are inevitable and I have never said there shouldnt be an increase. Common sense would say that government should live within its means as every other household has to. If a family cant afford something, it has to wait. Simple as that. Priorities have to be made and maintained. That simply isnt being done here.

There are a number of areas in the last few budgets that could have been put off until later so they can re-build reserves higher and save for the future. Milton needs more fire fighters. Thats a fact not in dispute. But the Town has to look at their priorities and see if it fits. If not, we wait. Hard pills to swallow but a fact is a fact. You cant do everything right away. It simply wont work.

Did we need almost $3 million dollars spent on brand new buses when the other ones were doing just fine? Again, Im not against a public transit system. Many of the readers of my blog know that as this town grows we NEED a reliable transit system for the future that needs to be properly maintained and kept an eye on. Once its in place, its a slippery slope to more money out the window. The last couple of budgets have proven that with the expenditures on these buses. Could they have waited? Perhaps. Maybe not. Perception of this is that Council merely rubber stamped it so they could expediate the 2 day budget process in December.

There needs to be more leadership on council. Some voices to say, this isnt right and we need to look at things more closely. If it means extending the budget approval process an extra day or go into the long hours of the evening debating line by line…then so be it. Thats what people elect their representatives to do, no matter what level of government.

It happened again

Mike Cluett

I was getting ready to go to the last official meeting of the Milton 150th Anniversary committee around 630pm when I heard some weird sounds and then a smash.

Oh no, not again I thought and hoped for the best as I made my way to front porch. So much for hoping.

There was another accident at Yates Drive and March Crossing last night between 2 vehicles…one coming out of March Crossing turning east towards Bennett and the other traveling on Yates towards Bennett. One driver was taking her family to the Hawthorne Village PS Holiday Sing a Long when, according to her, the car came through the stop sign and hit her on the drivers side front wheel, causing some significant damage.

Road conditions were fine at that time with little no snow and the roads were a bit wet.

My neighbour Wally and I did what we could to help them out and thankfully no one was hurt in this case.

We have had several near misses and now 3 accidents in the last year at this intersection and nothing seems to have been done. You might remember an article in the Champion about this intersection and how the town was going to do some further studies.

Its only a matter of time before something worse happens or someone is injured or killed.

Changing rules takes time…I understand that but as I mentioned last night “you cant legislate common sense.”

Its been said so many times here on this blog and in letters to the editor that our residential streets are not raceways and yet still people fly down the street. Just after the cars were moved to the side of the road a car few up our street at way over the speed limit and drove through the stop sign at Bennett. Unfortunately we didnt get the plate number, but from our location I did see that same car go down Irving Terrace just after.

When youre driving towards an intersection, regardless of stop signs or not, you have to approach it with caution and look out for other cars. This was a totally avoidable accident and shouldnt have happened.

I know that the majority of people I have spoken with over the course of the last year after the election have told me they agree with my stand on doing something, whether it be stop signs, speed bumps or reducing speed limits. But something has to be done.

Maybe reducing speed limits wont accomplish much, but if they get nailed by the police doing 60km/h instead of 40km/h, the fine will be a lot more, and MAYBE they might think twice. Sad to say but I feel I’m losing faith that something will change.

If you agree that something has to be done at this or any other location in town, please do your part. Write a letter to the editor of the Milton Canadian Champion and the Halton Compass…write a letter to your councillors and the Town of Milton…take down the plate numbers of people who you feel are not driving safely and send them to the Halton Police department…go to the website www.haltonroadwatch.ca and find out what more we can do to stop this. The more people get away with this the more it will continue.

***NOTE*** The link to Halton Road Watch seems to be down and not working.

Tax Increases Coming for Milton

Mike Cluett

As many of you know, its about this time of year when the Town of Milton council sits down and decides how much money they need to pay for the services they provide. Its also a well known fact that Milton has one of the lower tax rates in the GTA, which is what makes Milton a choice for many people to live.

Last week on December 10th and 11th, the council sat down to hammer out the town staffs proposal for the budget. What came out of it was rather shocking.

After “long deliberations” the council had decided on a 6.6% increase in our taxes for 2008. This means a homeowner with a property value of $ 300,000 will have an increase on their bill of over $45 for residential and roughly $37 for rural.

Keep in mind the rate of inflation is hovering at 2.5% for this year.

Why such a huge increase? In the articles linked below by the Milton Canadian Champion you will see the highlights (or low-lights if you so chose) of the budget deliberations on the 10th and 11th.

The budget initially had an increase of 4 full time firefighters for the Milton Fire Department but Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson made a case for just one more saying “Four says we got the message — five says we care.” A little on the dramatic side and it worked as the changes were approved.

While I am an avid supporter of the fire department, I feel that we have to be prudent in our spending. Things cant change overnight or else taxes will be double digit before long. With this change it added $46,000 to the budget. On the down side, council took out some much needed funds for our new fire chief. While we will now have one more firefighter, the department will be without its new chief until June of next year.

Coupled with the Region increasing taxes by 3.7%, we will now see some big changes on our tax bills in the coming year.

As quoted in the Champion article by Melanie Hennessey “The $27 million in the capital budget will be invested in 96 new projects, including $3.7 million in the new Town Hall, $2.5 million in the new library branch, $2.3 million in a fourth fire station and $1.4 million in a railway underpass on Main Street.”

What was even more upsetting is the lack of interest from Miltonians about the budget and its process. The Town of Milton had a plan in place on a number of occasions for public input on the budget over the past year for what the money should be spent on. During these budget debates on council, there were very few delegations to speak out on it. We all complain about taxes but never really take part in the process that leads up to these decisions.

I personally am NOT against tax increases. I am however in favour of keeping any tax increase in line with the rate of inflation. We have to continue to live within our means With the town growing as it is, it will be hard for this and future councils to make those decisions to keep taxes and spending down. I am also upset at the amount of the increase which is a full 4 per cent over the annual rate of inflation.

At that meeting Councillor Wendy Schau from Ward 4 wanted to add another full 2 per cent onto the budget to put $400,000 towards the town reserves, making the tax increase 8.8%.

Other councillors such as Jan Mowbray and Cindy Lunau, both from Ward 3 supported the increase. Wendy Schau called the full 2% increase “good sense” while Cindy Lunau called it a “wise investment”

Since when does a huge increase in taxes make “good sense?”

Mayor Gord Krantz ran a very efficient meeting of council on the 17th and suggested to councillors that if they feel that these increases are justified or if they wanted further changes to be made, that he would propose to open up budget talks again and silence was his answer. Lots of talk.

This years budget debate brought out the usual “grandstanding” that’s become a norm at this time of year while each councillor stands up and tries to justify why we should pay more money. While some of these major projects are needed to help the town grow, these decisions could have been made at other times saving us untold amounts of money.

Bad decisions in the past breed bad decisions in the future. My only worry is that now we’ve had such a large increase in taxes this year, it will only justify council next year to raise them even higher.

There wont be an election in Milton until 2010 so we should brace ourselves for further increases to come until that time.

Milton Santa Claus Parade

Mike Cluett

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Hundreds of people began lining the Main Street parade route as early as 1pm. Prime seats became hard to get for a great parade that gets better year after year and this year was no different.

Friends alike were seen along the parade route. Some people I haven’t seen in some time and a few people from out of town (as far as Orangeville I heard) to see what all the fuss was about. People come from far and wide to take part in Milton’s Santa Claus Parade.

Milton’s Santa Claus parade has a reputation for being one of the best in Ontario, let alone one of the best in Canada. This year had a bit of extra attention across Canada.

I opened my Friday’s edition of the National Post to see the result of a story first published in the Milton Canadian Champion by Melanie Hennessey. Organizers of the Milton Santa Claus parade had some hard decisions to make to keep the parade from becoming too long. They had made the decision to cut down on the extra cars or floats by asking Regional Chair Gary Carr, Halton MPP Ted Chuldliegh and Halton MP Garth Turner not to take part in this years parade.

Having politicians in a parade like this is tradition as far as I’m concerned. It goes along with all the other businesses and organizations that take part and create floats or cars or trucks.

I have no problem with having our local members being a part of the parade. But in the same breath, I am not the ones organizing. One would have to realize that hundreds and hundreds of hours are being volunteered by an untold number of people over the course of the year. To give you an idea, shortly after the new year the committee will reconvene to plan next years parade. Thats almost a years worth of planning. The parade was looking to be long (and it was this year) and they needed to make some cutbacks. There were some people that planned on being a part of the parade but couldnt. They looked to the current participants and decided that they could cut it down by the number of floats by removing the politicians. A hard decision mind you, but a necessary one according to members of the committee.

I was asked today that if I won the election last year, would I be upset if I wasnt able to be part of the parade today. Of course I would be upset, but I would accept the decision of the committee and move on.

Only the Mayor of Milton was asked to be the only politician allowed to participate in the parade. The theme of this years parade was for the 150th anniversary, a committee I have been part of since its inception back in 2005, and the floats and parade participants were to promote our 150th birthday year.

While Mr. Carr and Mr. Chudleigh were upset at not being allowed to take part in their usual way, they both showed class and stated they understood the decisions of the committee and planned to abide by it. Ted Chudleigh said that he would probably sit along the parade route with others and enjoy it as a spectator.

Over the past week this battle of words with Mr. Turner and those involved in running the parade reached a fever pitch where on his blog Garth stated that “he would walk the parade route with his dog” defying the committee and their decision.

Its gone beyond stupidity now with Garth claiming theres a conspiracy against him, and how the parade committee is partisan against him and its a way of shielding children from politicians and the political process and on and on and on. Its become so laughable its hard to believe that a grown man is making this much of a fuss about it. I hope it just goes away.

For those of you who were wondering, and as far as I could see, Garth didnt make an appearance on the parade route. In fact his name was brought up a couple of times, but only after the Mr. Grinch character made his way down by us did the name Garth Turner come up. Those who did bother to talk about this whole mess mentioned that its blown out of proportion and “SOMEONE” should grow up. I concur.

If someone is that bound on being in a parade, and the committee continues with their “ban” on politicians next year, maybe he can get involved in a number of organizations in order to be part of the parade and wave. He might have to put away his MP HALTON sash, but at least he can sit an wave.

The parade reached us in downtown Milton at about 225pm and Santa made his way at about 350pm. That made for a very long parade. Just imagine if there were politicians in the parade, eh? HA.

A great parade again this year and the people who planned this event should be congratulated!!! Excellent work this year. Pictures to be up shortly and if you have any, please feel free to email them to mike@mikecluett.ca and I can post them here as well. To those who took part in the parade and kept the crowd laughing and cheering along the route, thank you. And to those who braved the chilly wind with their kids, and holding tightly their hot chocolate from Troy’s Diner, shivering along the streets….thank you for coming out.

A classy event for a classy town. And no one was arrested for crashing the parade. A good day all around. Merry Christmas everyone!

"Slow down and obey the rules of the road"

Mike Cluett

Intersection dangerous: residents

Nov 09, 2007

A local woman is calling on the Town to put a four-way stop at a south Milton intersection after her house was struck by a car on the weekend for the second time in five months.

Yates Drive resident Denise Dawes said people have been using her street as “their own little speedway” and ignoring the rules of the road, particularly around the corner of Yates and March Crossing. Her home is the second house in from the intersection.

“To have my house hit twice in a five-month period is a great indication that nobody is obeying the two stop signs that are there,” she said.

“I think it’s time that the (Town) planners rethink their decision about placing a four-way stop sign at this location. I’m living proof that there should be something there.” Dawes said while the first accident caused more damage to her house than the car that struck it, this time around one of the people in the vehicle required medical attention.

“I’m hoping and praying there isn’t a third time,” she said. “Frankly, I don’t want to come home and find my house surrounded by police tape because someone has lost their life due to the carelessness of some impatient driver.”

Town Engineering Services Director Paul Cripps said a traffic count was done at the intersection around 2005. At that point, the warrants weren’t met to implement an all-way stop.

He noted that another count will take place within the next two to three weeks provided the Town receives a formal request for it from the public. Dawes told the Champion she will be making such a request.

In addition to Dawes, local resident Mike Cluett — who has been a strong advocate for local road safety — thinks something needs to be done to rectify the situation at Yates Drive and March Crossing. He said he’s heard from residents in the area who either want a four-way stop at the intersection or even speed bumps.

“There are a number of options we’d like to look at,” he remarked. “(I support) anything that will make it safer for kids.”

Cluett also pointed out that traffic problems such as these aren’t just isolated to the one intersection. “There are problems on a number of streets in the new area of Milton,” he said. “We need to see what we can do to make streets safer.”

And as for Dawes, she has a simple message for those who speed down her street: “Slow down and obey the rules of the road.”

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com