unimaginative2
Senior Member
Share the wealth, province urges Ottawa
Sorbara backs Miller's campaign to have the federal government give municipalities 1 per cent of GST
JAMES RUSK AND UNNATI GANDHI
October 24, 2007
Ontario's Finance Minister called on the federal government yesterday to share 1 per cent of the GST with municipalities such as Toronto as they struggle to balance their budgets.
Greg Sorbara said that, at a time when the feds are "awash in revenue" from an unprecedented surplus, municipalities across the country are starved for cash and considering service cuts.
"The best way to solve that problem is the proposal to allocate that 1 per cent of the GST through provincial governments for municipal purposes, including building infrastructure [and] new public transit," he said last night in Toronto, backing what Mayor David Miller has been campaigning for this past year.
"And we are going to continue to make that argument until the federal government sees that the notion of simply reducing the GST simply shortchanges and ignores the problems of cities and towns across the country."
Mr. Sorbara's words came as Mr. Miller warned yesterday that property taxes will go up 3 to 4 per cent, even with the new city taxes on vehicles and land sales that council imposed this week.
But the property-tax increase the mayor will actually deliver depends on what he, with the help of Toronto business leaders, can achieve in the annual political game that the city and the province play over the municipal budget.
In the decade since amalgamation, the city has regularly gone cap-in-hand to the province for cash to balance its budget so property-tax increases can be held to the rate of inflation or less.
Although publicly amicable deals were reached, there has been a privately growing frustration at Queen's Park that, while other Toronto-area municipalities have responded to fiscal pressure by raising property taxes by much more than Toronto has, the city's politicians continue to rely on annual provincial bailouts, usually for the subway.
"In some of our budgets, we've paid special attention to the City of Toronto because of its unique circumstances," Mr. Sorbara conceded. "For example, the City of Toronto runs a transit system which really is the system for hundreds of thousands of people that live beyond the boundaries of the City of Toronto.
"There are other unique circumstances that have us make special provisions for the City of Toronto, but every budget that we've presented has increased the viability of municipalities right across the province."
While the province has eased some of the pressure on municipalities by, for example, assuming responsibility for some of the social costs now borne locally, Premier Dalton McGuinty had also signalled that the province expected Toronto to use the unique taxing powers in the City of Toronto Act.
Mr. Sorbara declined to comment on whether the city should be exercising its taxing powers more strongly, saying simply, "It's up to them to decide what they're going to do."
In round figures, the city has to find $240-million through a combination of property-tax hikes, spending cuts or money from senior levels of government.
While the city will be able to say it stepped up to the plate with its new taxes, the province could, if it chose, play hardball by arguing that the city has not tapped into all the revenue sources it gave the city - and that, like its 905 neighbours, it should raise property taxes by significantly more than the inflation rate.
The issue on which the city is most vulnerable is spending.
The perception inside Queen's Park is that the mayor and council are not as careful with the public purse as 905 municipalities are, an impression that was reinforced with this summer's attempt to find cost savings, a botched effort that seriously eroded Mr. Miller's credibility.
"That was not pretty, politically or public-policy wise," said a provincial source.
As a consequence, the source said that Mr. Miller's decision to appoint a blue-ribbon task force to look for savings was an essential step in the mayor's efforts to get money out of the province.
The province hopes the task force will find savings in the city budget, but even if all it does is reassure the public that Toronto is doing a good job of managing tax dollars, it would make it easier for the Queen's Park to untie the purse strings once again.
Sorbara backs Miller's campaign to have the federal government give municipalities 1 per cent of GST
JAMES RUSK AND UNNATI GANDHI
October 24, 2007
Ontario's Finance Minister called on the federal government yesterday to share 1 per cent of the GST with municipalities such as Toronto as they struggle to balance their budgets.
Greg Sorbara said that, at a time when the feds are "awash in revenue" from an unprecedented surplus, municipalities across the country are starved for cash and considering service cuts.
"The best way to solve that problem is the proposal to allocate that 1 per cent of the GST through provincial governments for municipal purposes, including building infrastructure [and] new public transit," he said last night in Toronto, backing what Mayor David Miller has been campaigning for this past year.
"And we are going to continue to make that argument until the federal government sees that the notion of simply reducing the GST simply shortchanges and ignores the problems of cities and towns across the country."
Mr. Sorbara's words came as Mr. Miller warned yesterday that property taxes will go up 3 to 4 per cent, even with the new city taxes on vehicles and land sales that council imposed this week.
But the property-tax increase the mayor will actually deliver depends on what he, with the help of Toronto business leaders, can achieve in the annual political game that the city and the province play over the municipal budget.
In the decade since amalgamation, the city has regularly gone cap-in-hand to the province for cash to balance its budget so property-tax increases can be held to the rate of inflation or less.
Although publicly amicable deals were reached, there has been a privately growing frustration at Queen's Park that, while other Toronto-area municipalities have responded to fiscal pressure by raising property taxes by much more than Toronto has, the city's politicians continue to rely on annual provincial bailouts, usually for the subway.
"In some of our budgets, we've paid special attention to the City of Toronto because of its unique circumstances," Mr. Sorbara conceded. "For example, the City of Toronto runs a transit system which really is the system for hundreds of thousands of people that live beyond the boundaries of the City of Toronto.
"There are other unique circumstances that have us make special provisions for the City of Toronto, but every budget that we've presented has increased the viability of municipalities right across the province."
While the province has eased some of the pressure on municipalities by, for example, assuming responsibility for some of the social costs now borne locally, Premier Dalton McGuinty had also signalled that the province expected Toronto to use the unique taxing powers in the City of Toronto Act.
Mr. Sorbara declined to comment on whether the city should be exercising its taxing powers more strongly, saying simply, "It's up to them to decide what they're going to do."
In round figures, the city has to find $240-million through a combination of property-tax hikes, spending cuts or money from senior levels of government.
While the city will be able to say it stepped up to the plate with its new taxes, the province could, if it chose, play hardball by arguing that the city has not tapped into all the revenue sources it gave the city - and that, like its 905 neighbours, it should raise property taxes by significantly more than the inflation rate.
The issue on which the city is most vulnerable is spending.
The perception inside Queen's Park is that the mayor and council are not as careful with the public purse as 905 municipalities are, an impression that was reinforced with this summer's attempt to find cost savings, a botched effort that seriously eroded Mr. Miller's credibility.
"That was not pretty, politically or public-policy wise," said a provincial source.
As a consequence, the source said that Mr. Miller's decision to appoint a blue-ribbon task force to look for savings was an essential step in the mayor's efforts to get money out of the province.
The province hopes the task force will find savings in the city budget, but even if all it does is reassure the public that Toronto is doing a good job of managing tax dollars, it would make it easier for the Queen's Park to untie the purse strings once again.
