I’m really, really surprised that there was no mention of a higher property tax (as the report suggested) at the Council meeting. That should help a fair bit.
That is coming, everyone knows it; its in the report, though no proposed rate is listed.
There was discussion and a request to advance the idea of a graduated property tax on luxury properties.
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In terms of helping, absolutely, it would,. Though, the picture for the City vs a year ago (no more Covid bailouts and a worsening shelter situation have made things a good deal worse than they were).
Roughly, a 1% tax hike equates to about 55M a year under current rules (caps on multi-res and commercial tax rates).
So if you were to assume a 5% structural increase in property tax (above inflation and population growth), you could add ~275M per year.
Keep in mind, the base increase this year, likely needs to be 4% to tread water, that puts you at a 9% hike. I don't know if Council will go that far; maybe over 2 years? ; regardless, the budgetary hole is about 1.5B excluding unmet capital needs and without material service improvements.
Even a 9% hike gets you only about 1/3 of the way to balance.
You still have to find money for new trains for Line 2; for Platform Edge Doors, for the ever growing state of good repair backlog in Parks, for a new LTC home; and the list goes on.
A lot will have to be done, and the province/Ottawa will have to offer something as well.