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Rally for Toronto - September 26th 5:30pm @ Toronto City Hall
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| The Highroller |
If you are concerned about the direction our city is headed in, come to this event, and/or call your City Councillor in advance of the September 26th Council meeting, where the proposed budget cuts will be voted on.
Facebook event here
Also, here is an open letter I wrote to Rob Ford. I suggest you write him one too if you are concerned:
| quote: | Mayor Ford,
I am writing you this email to express my dismay on some of the proposed spending cuts. Let me preface this by saying that I appreciate that our city is facing a budget defecit that needs to be addressed, and this will not be an easy task, no matter what the solution.
This past week, I had the displeasure of driving from East York to the airport almost every day, and even at 7am the 401 was extremely congested. It is no secret that the traffic congestion is a serious problem in Toronto, and is in my opinion reaching a critical mass. This congestion costs the Toronto economy an insurmountable amount of economic output each year, harms the environment by idling vehicles, and just makes life in Toronto less pleasant by having to deal with travel times that are some of the worst in North America.
Two fundamental solutions to this problem, is further investment in alternate modes of transportation, such as a comprehensive public transportation system (which you stopped, re: Transit City) and bike lanes (some of which you have removed). After having lived in Lyon, France, and after having travelled around Europe and seeing how much superior European municipal (and provincial, and national for that matter) public transit systems are compared to Toronto, it makes me wonder why our city can't have something so great. In these cities, unless your job required it, in most cases you wouldn't dream of owning a car because public transportation is reliable, comfortable, and inexpensive.
Another important solution to this problem are disincentives to get people out of their cars, such as road tolls and vehicle registration taxes, (the latter of which you eliminated). The elimination of this revenue source is one of the reasons that the TTC is facing service reductions, which will cause more crowding and push people into buying cars, which will congest our already packed roads even further. Simply put, I believe that TTC service reductions, the removal of bike lanes, and removal of the vehicle registration tax are steps in the wrong direction.
Another proposed spending cut which is concerning is the proposed cuts to the arts. I have read that Toronto spends a disproportionately small amount of money on the arts on a per person basis, in comparison with other large cities. Toronto spends $18 per person, whereas New York spends $74 per person, and San Francisco $85 per person. As a taxpayer, I would love to spend at double the amount the amount that I am currently paying, because the arts are a very important aspect of our economy and society. Although my career has nothing to do with the arts, the arts are a very important consideration that I, a young adult, consider when deciding where to establish myself. For example, Nuit Blanche is one of my favourite things about living in Toronto. Furthermore, the arts generate economic activity, in the form of tourism, and create jobs for people who will in turn pay taxes on the income they earn at those jobs. Spending on the arts should be scrutinized to ensure that taxpayers' money is being spent wisely, however we should be spending more money on the arts, not less.
As far as solutions go to our current budget deficit, although I'm sure it is impossible politically since you built your campaign on this issue, reimplementation of the vehicle registration tax would be a good start, along with road tolls as discussed above. Furthermore, although it is a politically explosive issue, I'm sure that you can agree that the level of wages a great deal of City workers earn as a result of collective bargaining is well above what they should be earning based on market conditions. These costs represent a significant part of the City's budget, and to me, this is where the "gravy train" exists. As a taxpayer, I do not particularly enjoy my money funding unfair wages, when people in the private sector are doing the exact same job for less money. I voted for you to stop the gravy train, so if we want to get serious about cost reduction, this is where the focus of the cuts should be.
I have heard that the Ontario government spends a disproportionately small amount on Toronto city services (for example, the TTC), when compared with other cities in Canada or even in the U.S. How can I find out more information about funding levels for city services by the Ontario government, in comparison with other cities and their respective Provincial governments, so that I may call my MPP and express my concern?
One last area of concern is your proposal to change the direction of development of the Port Lands. This area is close to where I have lived in the city for most of my life, and simply put, I am fundamentally against building a large commercial mall in that area. This area should be mixed use, with parks and recreation facilities for the citizens of Toronto to enjoy. For this reason, I believe the current plan for the area by Waterfront Toronto is superior to the plan you have proposed. I further do not agree with the manner in which this plan was formulated, i.e. with little to no consultation from our elected city officials (City Councillors).
Overall, with the proposed spending cuts, the proposed change in direction for the Port Lands area, the change in direction of Transit City, the removal of bike lanes and vehicle registration taxes, among other things, I am concerned that our city is moving in the wrong direction.
Thank you for the time you have taken to read this letter.
Signed,
--A concerned citizen |
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| LightsOut |
I wish I knew more about this whole situation...
I've been told that property taxes in Toronto are significantly lower then those in the suburbs. If this is true, and the city is so cash strapped, why not just up property taxes and keep them in line with the surrounding areas....
Again, I'm not too versed on the budgetary circumstances plaguing city hall, so this might not even be a viable option... |
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| mdm8 |
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| Jay Leno |
| quote: | Originally posted by LightsOut
I wish I knew more about this whole situation...
I've been told that property taxes in Toronto are significantly lower then those in the suburbs. If this is true, and the city is so cash strapped, why not just up property taxes and keep them in line with the surrounding areas....
Again, I'm not too versed on the budgetary circumstances plaguing city hall, so this might not even be a viable option... |
I've heard the same thing... |
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| smuncky |
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| patpicos |
Great letter Graham.
Few questions:
While I do not know about transit city (a 2 liner would be good ..), expanding the subway and lines is a good thing. Unfortunately, the sprawl of the subway system in toronto is a joke. I much prefer montreal's network.
Regarding the vehicle tax, I dont agree with such a tax so I am happy it was removed even though it was an important revenue stream. I hate mini taxes for this and that. For example, gas price is higher on MTL island than outside because of a city tax. Government and municipalities should stop creating one off taxes instead of capturing that money by regular means such as city taxes and income taxes. The more diff. taxes we have, the more overhead there is to manage it....and in the end it creates useless jobs.
Like you, I experience stupid traffic (as I posted in the election 2011 thread). I am against HOV lanes because they are a weak attempt at social engineering. I would be in favor of tolls on the gardiner/dvp/401. Especially the gardiner because there is a parallel Go train. That way, you hit the users of that service, not everyone.
However, ANY tolls' money must be reinvested into transportation. It is not a revenue stream to fill other gaps.
Ultimately, people will not switch to public transit until it becomes a realistic economic proposition. People will drive their car because the same trip takes longer in public transit than using the car...and the transit option is as expensive.
GTA public transit needs to be made provincial so that GO train, TTC, and other services are under one roof, make efficiencies, replace roles that are replaceable (collector booths), and use 1 fare system. None of the current parties are playing nice with each other and it has to stop.
From a taxation perspective, if Toronto's rate are lower than other GTA areas, then it needs to be increased. The city also provides many services that it should not take the burden...then offload it in a sensible manner. I dont want to see MTL's situation about bums in TO! |
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| musicsnob_NOT |
| quote: | Originally posted by LightsOut
I wish I knew more about this whole situation...
I've been told that property taxes in Toronto are significantly lower then those in the suburbs. If this is true, and the city is so cash strapped, why not just up property taxes and keep them in line with the surrounding areas....
Again, I'm not too versed on the budgetary circumstances plaguing city hall, so this might not even be a viable option... |
It all depends on how you look at it. Toronto's percentage is lower but if you consider what you actually get for the assessed value in different area it isn't lower.
$300,000 gets you a small 1 bedroom condo in Toronto, it gets you a hell of a lot more in Oshawa.
Even though I despise the Toronto Star and their left leaning bull this is actually a good article from a few years ago which explains it well.
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/410665 |
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| GGM |
| quote: | Originally posted by musicsnob_NOT
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Good article. Further to that if you look at what population density does the affect how much the city can collect from a given area. If you have a 400 unit condo building downtown and the average unit value is $250,000 the city of Toronto makes almost $800,000 in taxes from that.
Take that same piece of land in the burbs and you'd be lucky to fit 10 houses on it. Say the value of those houses is on the high side at $500,000 that's still only $40,000 in taxes for the same amount of space. |
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| LightsOut |
| quote: | Originally posted by musicsnob_NOT
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| quote: | Originally posted by GGM
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Good points, I see the trade off there. It baffles my mind how fiscally inept Toronto has been for the last number of years. |
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| CMR |
| quote: | Originally posted by LightsOut
It baffles my mind how fiscally inept Toronto has been for the last number of years. |
Toronto has been "fiscally inept" since Harris and his forced downloading of services. Cities in Ontario are responsible for funding services that are provincially funded in the rest of Canada, without additional funding allocated to the city's budget. And as Rob Ford has proven on his failed quest for "gravy", there isn't a whole lot to be found. The city has been managing its funds over the past 12 years about as best as it can.
PS. Ford's approval rating is now sitting at 27% :haha: |
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| Billche |
| quote: | Originally posted by LightsOut
I've been told that property taxes in Toronto are significantly lower then those in the suburbs. If this is true, and the city is so cash strapped, why not just up property taxes and keep them in line with the surrounding areas....
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I own a house in Whitby and my property taxes are close to 4000 on it (house is worth in around 300k ish)
In Toronto, a similarly valued house/condo would be paying 1000-1500 for property taxes. Plus, the city has a significant number of extra public services that Whitby doesn't offer.
Durham has the highest property taxes in the GTA, but the difference is a bit much. |
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| malek |
| quote: | Originally posted by devnull
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Few corrections: Gaz price is the same off island too, its the same in the whole metropolitan area: too expensive. This being said, that money goes in a big provincial pot where it pays for other than transport... which enfuriates me and many others. If you want to tax gaz and such, please reinvest it in the roads and mass transit.
On the other hand, there's now a special tax on each vehicule owner on the island, about 50$ per car, which created quite a fuss considering how much money the city already takes and the confusion and waste following the merger of Montreal with 15 surrounding cities.
I wish someone like Ford could take power in Montreal and simplfies this whole wasteful administration and focus the city on its core missions. |
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