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Here is the presentation we are getting now from staff on the budget: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2018/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-112567.pdf … Bit of a breakdown here, annotated by me: 1. What Tory’s administration mandated (low taxes) 2. Reliance on hot housing market 3. Continued “kicking-the-can-down-the-road” strategiespic.twitter.com/WHZkfXqe7a
The current recommended budget, as per budget committee recommendations, actually increases expected revenue from municipal land transfer tax by $10M, based on actual revenue from 2017. That means budget is balanced on assumption housing market will continue at same pacepic.twitter.com/JvMQjV3yw3
“If MLTT declines, we’ll have an issue,” city manager Peter Wallace tells executive. Even if sales dip, the city will have to come back midway through the year and either find other revenue or cut spending, he outlines
Here’s a look at where the money goes from the average homeowner’s property taxes (which is $2,907 for a home assessed at $624,418 this year). As always, largest line item is Toronto Policepic.twitter.com/SXdTBeR3dS
Here is a slide that has not changed since I’ve been at city hall: Toronto has the lowest residential property tax rates in the regionpic.twitter.com/5wMPv0wc1G
Total “bridging strategies” shown here for each year is what city manager Wallace referred to as kicking the can down the road — one-time, unsustainable solutions to balance the budget. There is still $76M of that planned for this year (as per budget committee recommendations)pic.twitter.com/80xVxVZKWT
Councillor Janet Davis, who is not a member of executive, is first for questions. Says she’s not even sure why they’re here debating this because the tax rate has already been set. “There’s no way to change this at this point.”
“City councillors would be wise to note the vast difference between last January's real estate market and this January's, given the city's inadvisable reliance on the Municipal Land Transfer Tax," said real estate board president (from linked Globe story)https://twitter.com/shanedingman/status/960898911505444866 …
Here’s more from our @TessKalinowski on home prices and TREB warnings to councilhttps://www.thestar.com/business/2018/02/06/toronto-region-home-prices-down-41-in-january.html …
Burnside is trying to make argument that because there are high number of condo units in Toronto, average property tax is not actually below regional average. But Toronto has a large number of condo units where actual people live
Robinson is confused, asking staff to confirm the city building fund put in place by council at Tory’s request is dedicated to transit only and why it’s not called the transit-building fund. Council decided those funds can also be used towards affordable housing
Also, for the record, the city building fund is only expected to raise $15M this year. From supplementary staff report:pic.twitter.com/e87aPaWrGp
And Crawford is now moving additional motions. One motion asks for adjusting TTC staffing to deal with bus crowding, another increases budget by $806,000 for TCH fire safety requests through Toronto Fire
Crawford reiterates his view that this is a “good news budget.” The first example he gives of this is that property taxes are being kept low
We’re going to have an executive-stamped budget that looks largely like this before lunch:https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2018/01/23/budget-committee-commits-funding-for-additional-shelter-beds-falling-short-of-advocates-demands.html …
What’s not obvious when you listen to these speeches or read the presentations is what the city could do if the funding was provided now, like open seven new youth hubs in priority neighbourhoods:https://twitter.com/jpags/status/959501983597187072 …
These things are hidden because staff have molded their budgets to a target increase of 0%. The recommended budget to be passed here today includes funding for three new youth hubs, but they could all be opened now if they were all funded now. There are other examples of this
Pasternak: “In general, it’s a good strong budget that I think will meet all our service needs across the city”
Pasternak says more seniors want to age in place and increasing property taxes higher than inflation will force seniors from their homes. Here is important chart of tax relief city already provides, including to seniors, that is designed to mitigate this:https://twitter.com/graphicmatt/status/960590079990235136 …
This is a common refrain from councillors: “We can’t raise taxes because we will push seniors out of their homes!” It’s a powerful, emotional argument designed to combat those who say we need to pay more for the services we need. It completely ignores measures city has in place
Tory is last to speak on the budget. “I think it is a budget that achieves what we’ve set out to do” - ensure city remains “affordable” by keeping property taxes low, “but at the same time recognizing we have a responsibility . . . to make investments in the city”
This speaks to a key question that comes up every year at this time: Affordable for who?https://www.thestar.com/news/city-hall-blog/2016/01/-for-whom-is-this-budget-affordable-.html …
Tory notes this budget, importantly, ensures more Toronto Community Housing units will be prevented from closing this year and next. After that, funding again uncertain
Tory uses Goldilocks & the Three Bears metaphor to end his speech, saying budget gets things “just right”. And that’s it for this special executive meeting. Motions passed. What is substantially the budget committee-recommended budget is passed. Council has final say next week
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