Council approves 0.8 per cent tax hike
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...-cent-tax-hike
City councillors have approved the lowest tax increase since amalgamation.
Council gave its stamp of approval to a 0.8 per cent property tax increase Wednesday, which amounts to about $24 on the average bill this year.
“The work that was done to eliminate millions of dollars from the preliminary budget is phenomenal,” said Mayor Bob Bratina. “I’m quite happy with where we are today.”
But not everyone agreed.
Councillors Terry Whitehead and Brad Clark said the city should have pushed harder to achieve the goal of a zero per cent tax increase — especially since the tax rate didn’t shrink in the last 12 days of budget negotiations.
“We came so close to getting the zero. We were at 0.8, and in 12 days nothing was done. I find that incredibly disappointing,” said Clark, who is currently running for the federal Conservatives. “You get so close to the actual goal, and to stop looking is incredibly frustrating.”
The budget includes a 0.5 per cent capital levy that’s earmarked for infrastructure. It also includes millions of increases for the city’s boards and agencies, including $129.8 million for the police budget — a 5 per cent increase from last year — and $3.25 million for HECFI, the city’s entertainment agency.
Council chose to add the HECFI budget into the levy, but will hold off on passing those funds to the organization until it sees the results of a probe into the troubled agency.
When city staff first laid out last June the projected tax increase for 2011, it sat at 3.9 per cent. The closure of the adult emergency room at McMaster, transit and employee wages were identified as the major hurdles.
Over the past few months, council whittled about $15 million from the budget without affecting service levels. The final cut happened earlier this month when staff vowed to cut employee costs by $1 million by the end of the year. That shaved 0.2 per cent off the total increase.
However, Clark said the city could have found the last $5 million in cuts it would have required to get down to zero per cent.
“For all of those naysayers out there who said ‘they can’t hit zero,’ we just proved them right. Because we stopped. And we didn’t have to,” Clark said.
The budget took an unexpected hit earlier this year when the province denied the city’s request for $4 million in order to offset the high cost of social services. The province also denied another request for $1.5 million to cover the increased ambulance costs from the closure of the adult emergency room.
The city is still in negotiations with the province about the $1.5 million cost for the emergency room, which would cover the cost of an additional ambulance team. If the city doesn’t receive that money and still decided on increasing ambulance staff, that expense would be covered by the city’s tax stabilization reserve.
The budget does assume an undisclosed amount in wage increases for the city’s unionized employees. Since the city is still negotiating collective agreements with its unions, the final increase amounts will remain confidential until the city and its unions reach a deal.
Council received the latest in a series of in-camera updates on its labour negotiations at Wednesday’s budget meeting.
Each area of the city will also pay a slightly different rate thanks to changes to the city’s area rating system.
By the numbers
1.3 billion dollars: the city’s gross operating budget
0.8 per cent: this year’s tax increase
24 dollars: the increase the average household (assessed at $240,000) will pay in 2011
2 per cent: tax increase in 2010 (about $67 per home)
1.7 per cent: tax increase in 2009 (about $55 per home)
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