Toronto budget hikes property taxes, fees

Higher property taxes, higher business taxes and increased user fees are all part of Toronto's proposed 2010 operating budget.

The city was faced with a shortfallthat the Toronto Board of Trade pegged at$382 million, but managed to find a way tobalance its books when it released its budget Tuesday morning.

The budgetcalls for a four-per-cent rise in property taxes, a 1.3 per cent hike in business taxes and $13 million in extra user fees.The property tax hike means that owners ofthe average home in the city assessed at $407,374 will have to pay $93 extra annually.

Taxes on commercial properties, meanwhile, are slated to go up by 1.3 per cent.

About $172 million in savings will come from service cuts.

Mayor David Miller said the increases are needed to keep the city afloat even though property owners were hit with four-per-cent increases last year, too.

Miller said in spite of the tax increases "if you own a home or condo in Toronto you paid less residential property taxes in 2009 than any other municipality in the GTA."

Toronto's operating budget has been valued at $9.2 billion. About 70 per cent of that total goes to services that are difficult to trim: police, fire, TTC, ambulance, health and social services.

The police service's budget is set at $892.2 million this year, up from $854 million in 2009.

But the TTC, said Miller, continues to be the largest challenge for the budget team.

The $219-million surplus from last year's budget will be applied entirely to this year's TTC operating budget, which is set at $1.4 billion, up from $1.3 billion last year.

Province to provide transit funding

Toronto, said Miller, "needs the province to return to the sustainable transit operating funding that was in place for decades prior to amalgamation."

To that end, the province has agreed to provide permanent, sustained funding for transit starting next year, he said. But he did not provide details, saying only the city was working with the provinceto put the finishing touches on the agreement by December 1.

The promise of sustained provincial fundingfor transit came at a price, at least in the short term.Ontario is not providing the city any money tobridge its budgetgap.

Last year, Queen's Park sent $238 million to make up the shortfall.

The budget also introduced increases to some user fees, which in total, account for about 15 per cent of budget revenue.

City Manager Joe Pennachetti said the city has introduced an extra $13million in user fees $4 million of which is related to increases on existing fees and about $9 millionin new fees.

Some of the fee increases include:

• Anew$50 one-time fee to create an account to register for parks and recreation programs.
• A hike in the price of a 12-weekadult aquatic pass to $192.97 from $186.67.
• An increase in the price of an on-street parking permit to $157 from $143.
• A new fee that will chargepeople whocall in a false fire alarm $350 per fire truck that shows up.

Detailsconcerning othernew fees will be introduced later this week.

Critics have called for more drastic measures to trim the Toronto deficit. Some have asked for city employees to be handed unpaid days off to reduce costs.

Members of the public will be asked to give their input starting on March 1. The final proposed budget will be discussed by city council on April 15 and 16.