Mayor Olivia Chow offered a largely unchanged remaining model of her 2025 metropolis funds Thursday, which retains a proposed 6.9 per cent tax for householders, saying Torontonians need improved metropolis providers and a greater high quality of life — and so they’re prepared to pay for them.
The up to date model of the mayor’s first funds proposal from Jan. 13 contains an working funds of $18.8 billion, in addition to a $60-billion 10-year capital plan.
The proposed funds would pay for providers together with transit enhancements, expanded faculty meal packages, protections for renters and elevated spending on reasonably priced housing packages, Chow mentioned at a information convention Thursday morning within the metropolis’s St. James City neighbourhood.
Cash would additionally go towards increasing library hours, the TTC fare freeze and the hiring of extra emergency responders and visitors brokers.
“Powerful selections should be made as we proceed to climb out of a decade of neglect,” Chow advised reporters, defending the proposed tax enhance. “We can not steadiness our funds on the backs of cuts to the town providers folks depend on.”
The proposed funds additionally has $680 million in “reductions and offsets,” Chow mentioned. She mentioned the town has labored vigorously to safe funding from the provincial and federal governments for a wide range of metropolis wants, however Toronto nonetheless has to seek out cash to enhance providers and assist overcome a $1.2 billion funds shortfall.
The one main change from the primary model of the funds, Chow mentioned, is the enlargement of property tax aid for seniors and folks with disabilities. It raises the property tax deferral and cancellation earnings threshold for these teams by 5 per cent to $60,000. That may help a further 2,300 households, Chow’s workplace mentioned in a launch.
Chow mentioned the dearth of adjustments to her remaining funds was in response to what she heard in funds consultations with the general public since Jan. 13.
“What they mentioned actually confirmed the proposed funds that we launched,” she mentioned. “We should make investments to make life simpler.”
The proposed tax hike drew some pushback when it was first introduced earlier this month, with Coun. Brad Bradford saying then that it could solely make life much less reasonably priced within the metropolis, whereas providers stagnated.
WATCH | Chow proposes a 6.9% tax enhance for Toronto:
Breaking down Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s proposed 6.9% tax hike
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has launched a proposed 2025 metropolis funds that features a 5.4 per cent property tax enhance and the annual 1.5 per cent “metropolis constructing levy.” CBC’s Sarah MacMillan breaks down what Toronto residents must know.
Final 12 months’s funds raised the property tax by 9.5 per cent, the best enhance in a long time.
In a letter Chow wrote Thursday to stipulate her funds, she acknowledged one other enhance could be “difficult for a lot of throughout the town.”
This 12 months’s proposal features a 5.4 per cent property tax hike along with the annual 1.5 per cent “metropolis constructing fund” levy, which works towards main infrastructure tasks.
The will increase would quantity to a further $268 yearly for the typical Toronto home-owner, in keeping with funds paperwork launched earlier this month.
Chow’s proposed funds is ready to go to council on Feb. 11.
