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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

17 comments

  1. Wow , even the Toronto Sun says our property tax increase was low. Maybe there is hope after all.

  2. I guess those new service fees and charges don’t count as tax dollars but “money from heaven”.And the definition of cost of living is different for councillor pay hikes,and ratepayers property tax.

  3. Other places have user fees as well.

    And I am sad to say that cost of living vs. councillors pay hikes is a typical Rob Ford/Toronto Sun red herring issue. When you start calling for CEO’s and sports players to be paid less then at least you will be consistent and have an argument. The two rates are only connected in the minds of populists.

  4. Ahhhh I see so when local governments impose fees that were never promised during an electionthat is acceptable.When elected officials lie to the electorate to atain office that is honourable.When political leaders hide the state of the financial health of their government that is honest.But when a councillor tries to report the truth in how public money is spent what should we call that?When media begins to do what the “charter of rights and freedoms”allows them total right to investigate you feel that they should be stopped?This is a democracy and every expenditure by a democratic government should be made available to the public.This government is about cover-up,deceit and of non-transparency.
    Those fees were implemented as an extra tax to supplement the property taxes.
    Miller was trying to prove that the cost of living in toronto was actually 3.75%,but the pay raise which by law was only 1.9%(the cost of living).So do tell us who has the correct cost of living figures??

  5. Aahhh, the inane and libelous rants of Sawision returns. I suspected a court order was issued. I guess it will be coming soon.

  7. The tax increase and the new fees are NOT the cost of living. THey are the cost of paying for services. I don’t know why you get that. Any connection between the two is artificial.

  8. I apologise scott, I must have misinterpreted what Joe Pantalone and David Miller meant during the election about not raising taxes higher than the “cost of living”.Especially considering that Miller was clear that the City of Toronto financial situation was in “good order”.

  9. I agree that Miller tends to avoid telling it like it is but I also get it that residents dont want to hear the truth either. There lies the real root of the problem.

  10. you are so right scott,
    whe I ran in the last election I made it clear that there would be a 5% minimum hike in total taxes because the city was near bancruptcy.The only financial tool that is saving city hall is the toronto act which allows them to borrow and bring in new tax measures.Unfortunately the interest payments on that borrowed money is increaseing every year and the reserve funds are dry!However no matter how bad the truth is it must be made public as to where and how tax dollars are spent.Unfortunately that isn’t the case at the moment.
    So scott the question is how do we solve the problem?????

  11. Crazy old George is back at it again. The City of Toronto Act doesn’t change anything for borrowing money. The city can borrow for its capital budget but can’t borrow to make ends meet in its operating budget (ie, no deficits allowed). It’s pretty simple stuff. So simple that Curious George could understand it, but apparently not George Sawision.

  15. C’mon, George. I gave you the link. Now prove your claim!

    Oh wait, you can’t. You can’t because what you said is totally false. You’re a liar, libelous and unfit to sit in the peanut gallery, let alone public office.

    Interest payments are from the debt called for in the *capital* budget, ya know the one that buys new stuff and repairs old stuff (stuff isn’t a technical term but I don’t think George understands words like assets and amortization). That’s nothing new. That’s always been around. The difference now is that more of the capital budget has to be financed by debt because there’s so little money for operating expenses. No one likes that situation but that’s the only way to keep the lights on and the snow plows plowing.

    It’s such a relief that the overwhelming majority of voters in Ward 19 (me and my neighbours!) recognized how poorly conceived your candidacy was.

  16. enjoy three more years of joe, its your money and your debt.Obviously you have an adgenda and facts wont make a difference wiyyh you.But please read the city of toronto act before you throw arrows at me.Remember I am not the councillor Joe is and he can answer for what he is doing to our ward.If you are still happy with him after this fiasco then by all means vote for Joe.It is a free country afterall!I am trying to help my neighbors with their taxes,if you feel that they should pay more and more then why don’t you explain to them why they are paying those interest payments.Just check out the section on borrowing powers of the corporation.Or better still take your complaint up with Dalton McGuinty,he gave the city those powers.

    In the meantime thank you for at least voting you are in the minority in ward 19.Very few of your fellow citizens do vote.

  17. George’s random rants aside, there is an issue about the election promise that David Miller made. That promise will have been interpreted by 90%+ of people that actually cared enough about the election as relating to the general inflation index, since that is the only index they could actually judge that promise against.

    To use the City’s cost index as a benchmark might seem fair and right but it does not conform to the election promise as made. The inflation index is 1.9 percent, the property tax increase is 3.7-3.8

    I actually don’t have much of an issue with the increase, I think the City needs the money, but I also think we need a mayor who the taxpayers trust.

    That Jim Coyle would write a lovenote to Mel Lastman in last week’s Star, even in jest, having ripped him a new one last August should be deeply troubling to the handlers at 100 Queen West and encouraging to people with serious aspirations to the top job (and in case people think I’m talking about Stintz and Minnan-Wong I think they’d getting hammered even worse than Pitfield was).