By Chris Wattie, National Post
City Hall is backing away from imposing a surprise property tax increase on Toronto homeowners that was quietly released in a report made public last Thursday, just before the long weekend.Councillor Shelley Carroll, the city budget chief, said yesterday she will introduce a motion at the city’s powerful executive committee when it meets on Tuesday to cover the $4.5-million unexpected tax hike out of the city’s small budget surplus. “Because it’s such a sudden, larger than expected increase … I’m going to move that we use part of the budget surplus instead of raising residential tax rates,” Ms. Carroll told the National Post, “In hindsight, if I’d known it was going to increase by that much, I would have done things differently.” A little-noted city report released last Thursday revealed that property taxes for the coming year would increase by 4.08%, not the 3.75% announced in the proposed municipal budget. The report said the tax hike the city announced had not factored in a program to shift taxes from small businesses to homeowners.
The higher tax rate would cost the average Toronto homeowner an additional $87.89 a year, for a total municipal tax bill of $3,204.77, including city and education taxes. The average home in the city is assessed at $365,468. The education portion of the property tax bill is not affected by the tax shifts. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said that even with the lower figure, Mayor David Miller is still raising taxes well above inflation. “This confirms to everyone that the Mayor’s broken his own campaign promise,” Mr. Minnan-Wong said. “He’s clearly broken faith with the public.” Mr. Miller promised to keep tax increases in line with inflation, but the Consumer Price Index, the most commonly used measure for inflation, was up 1.8% in February from the same time last year. That would put the 3.75% property tax hike at more than double the inflation rate, which Mr. Minnan-Wong said represents a broken promise. “This just fuels the increasing cynicism that the public feels toward City Hall,” he said. “People are feeling very frustrated at being manipulated this way.”
Councillor Karen Stintz said the back-and-forth on tax rates suggests the Mayor and his allies on council are making up the budget on the fly. “Where’s the transparency in this budget?” she said. “Why can’t we be honest with people about the tax burden they can expect?” “It does not feel as if there’s a plan.”
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Don Quixote Note: The final Toronto tax bill will remain at $3116.81 on a $365,468 average property representing a .8528 % tax levy. Vernon's tax rate in 2007 is slightly higher at .8595 %. What rate will Vernon's final taxes in 2008 bring ?
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