Friday’s headlines

7 comments

1. Re: Tory just not mean enough to make it as a politician

   In a way I think that sentiment is backwards. It is not that JT is not mean enough, it is that he should not have to be. Mean in politics, IMO, refers to the ability to mislead the public with little remorse and for political gain.

   Such as David Miller promising to hold taxes in line with inflation, while increasing spending at 2x to 3x the rate. Or rumoured candidate Joe Pantelone promising free car insurance in a long a run for Provincial politics.

   We don’t need meaner politicians, we need more intelligent voters.

2. Related to my previous post, we could also use more intelligent journalist. Take the linked Hume article for example. On the one hand he says…

   “The results won’t be pretty. But what really hurts is that there’s nothing the city can do except raise property taxes, which would require more maturity than we can muster.

   The awkward truth is that the only person who can solve Toronto’s growing financial crisis is Premier Dalton McGuinty.”

   on the other he states…

   “Besides, when you look at the property taxes paid in Toronto, compared with other municipalities, it’s clear we have it easy. In Oshawa, for example, which has little to show for its efforts, property tax rates are 2 1/2 times ours; in Pickering they’re double.”

   In effect he is saying that Toronto council does not have the guts to raise taxes so the Province should bail them out. One should also note that besides having much lower residential taxes, Toronto spends nearly twice as much per household.

   Toronto’s fiscal crisis (perpetual) stems more from beggar thy neighbour polices than downloading. If the city collected the average GTA amount on residents its crisis would be over. With money to spare.

   Here is a recent comparison of average residential tax burdens;

   In 2008 Toronto residents paid;

   $204 less than Mississauga

   $886 less than Vaughan

   $968 less than Oakville

   $755 less than Markham

   $917 less than Richmond Hill

   $1,101 less than Pickering

   $814 less than Oshawa

   http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/cc/bgrd/backgroundfile-20057.pdf

3. Here’s the thing.

   IT SHOULD BE CHEAPER TO LIVE IN THE CITY, AS A FUNCTION OF PROPERTY COST, THAN THE SUBURBS.

   Let’s take Fire/EMS as an example. Generally speaking these services cover geographic districts to ensure a response time based on distance to the call. If you have an area like East York with narrow mutual drives and compare it to a wide lot/2 car garaged suburb, there’s a lot less houses supporting the tax burden require for those services in the burbs. The Cityfolk pay for the lower tax burden by having less private space in both single family and multi-family contexts.

   If anything, City taxes should be cheaper still, except that Cities tend to draw a lot of social needs that can’t be met or are perceived as so outside the city. Where’s the CAMH in Oakville? How many homeless shelters are provided per tax payer in Vaughan compared to Toronto? What proportion of infrastructural upkeep is required by non-resident commuters in Durham compared to Toronto?

   The Province used to bear those costs which essentially were for GTA-wide services but downloading changed that. Furthermore, the reason outer GTA taxes are rising is that development charges, which should have been banked against future needs, were used to keep taxes down. Now the land is running out and the chicken is coming home to roost.

   If taxes were equalised across the GTA, it would actually mean a complete screwing of the 416. But since we’re not likely to change the people we elect much, that doesn’t seem to matter at Queens Park.

4. Um, property values are higher in Toronto, and consume a greater share of a family’s income. So yes, a Mississauga orange will be taxed at a different rate than a Toronto apple. That’s why a $350,000 five-room mansion in the 905 area will be taxed at a higher rate than the $350,000 3-room Toronto semi with no backyard or garage.

5. First off, Toronto ‘cost’ are related to what Toronto spends. The biggest and most common mistake people make in ascertaining cost is overestimating the ‘savings’ of density. In the example you use Mark, did you consider that when homes are closer that the probability for a fire to spread is increased. More so in multi unit dwellings, in addition to requiring different and more expensive equipment.

   I did a comparison of this before….

   Admin hours per resident: Toronto 3.208 Mississauga/Peel 3.23
   Fire Dept. hours per resident: Toronto 2.59 Mississauga/Peel 2.08
   Fire Dept. cost per res: Toronto $120 Mississauga $122
   Police : Toronto 1 per 355 residents Mississauga/Peel 1 per 490 residents
   Transportation : Toronto $108 per resident Mississauga $303 per resident

   The two areas that will be affected most by density are transportation and solid waste management. Both of which are not very large expenses.

   If you really believe that Toronto should be cheaper to provide services due to its density I suggest you take up the issue with council because they have not been delivering……….

   http://www.toronto.ca/city_performance/pdf/consolidated-2007-PMBR-report.pdf

   Mark,

   Do not make the mistake of equating property tax with sale or income taxes. Toronto’s rates are the result of Toronto’s spending.

6. “I guarantee it will have a shark tunnel. And I guarantee it will be bigger than ours,” said Karl Thomas.

   lol

7. Getting to this post late… but just wanted to say I agree with Mark’s comment of 2.11 p.m. — residential taxes in TO SHOULD be lower, but largely aren’t because of costs related to such things as: disproportionate social service related costs (largely downloaded by province to property tax base); transit (high density areas need more robust transit while less dense areas can devote fewer municipal revenues to this). However, I would also add that there is a certain degree of questionable spending by Council (no, I’m not talking union contracts) that aren’t often seen in other municipalities. In this category, I’d place the out of control police budget and such things as $10m for 40 shelter beds.

   The oft cited comparison of the mill rates of various municipalities by journalists, commentators and even the Mayor as the gauge to compare where residential taxes are higher really makes no sense since the mill rate is only part of equation.