There go property taxes: Ashton hinting NDP will reject Katz's threat
By TOM BRODBECK | Winnipeg Sun
Hold on to your wallets, folks.
It looks like property taxes are going up in Winnipeg next year.
And it won't just be school divisions this time.
Mayor Sam Katz threatened last week to jack up property taxes in 2009 unless the Doer government hands him a windfall in next month's provincial budget.
Well, it doesn't look like he's going to get that windfall.
At least that's what provincial Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Steve Ashton hinted at yesterday.
"We are already leaders in this country on municipal funding," Ashton told the Sun. "We're already part of the solution."
It's no big surprise considering the Doer government has already made substantial increases to city coffers in recent years.
Ashton reminded the city it already gets a share of income and corporate taxes and the province has increased funding through the Building Manitoba Fund.
"What we've done in recent years is very significant," said Ashton. "I think the numbers speak for themselves."
The truth is, Katz is looking for a scapegoat to blame for his own mismanagement of city hall finances.
He's talking about a tax increase now to try to take the sting out of it next year.
He knows very well the province has already substantially increased funding to the city in recent years and it's unrealistic to expect a windfall on top of that.
Katz made some spending cuts in last week's budget but also increased spending in many other discretionary areas. Overall, he's jacking up spending by 3.6% -- more than twice the rate of inflation.
And now he wants the province to pick up an even larger part of the city's tab, claiming he has no choice but to raise property taxes for the first time in 11 years if the province doesn't bail him out. He even put it in writing.
"Without significant improvement in our financial arrangements with the province ... this remarkable property tax freeze will not be continued in 2009," Katz wrote in the budget's opening remarks.
IT'S A MYTH
It's a city hall myth the province isn't doing its share to fund city services.
Just to put it into perspective, the city is increasing spending by $26 million this year. According to the city's own budget, about 35% -- or $9 million -- of that increase comes from additional provincial funding in 2008.
Katz and others at city hall complain they need provincial funding increases that grow with the economy.
Well, provincial funding to the city this year will jump to $90 million from $81 million in 2007 -- an 11% increase.
That's more than three times the rate of economic growth forecasted for Manitoba this year.
And Katz expects even more on top of that, at a time when he's also getting record levels of federal funding, including a new portion of the federal gas tax?
Please.
It's not that the city won't continue to get some increases from the province this year and in the future.
But it hardly sounds like the kind of windfall Katz is talking about.
"There will be increased funding through existing mechanisms," said Ashton. "We think that's a good deal."
Katz can go ahead and jack up property taxes next year if he wants.
But he has neither the political mandate nor the financial argument to do so.
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