Toronto staff are recommending a nine per cent hike to the city’s residential property tax — the largest single-year increase since amalgamation in 1998 — as they look to fill a nearly $1.8 billion budget shortfall in 2024 and a grim long-term fiscal outlook.
With the recommendation of an additional 1.5 per cent increase to the city building tax, property owners could see their tax bill jump 10.5 per cent this year if the figures go unchanged during five weeks of scheduled budget debates and consultations.
What isn’t being said, and what should be screamed from the rooftops, is that Ford and Tory artificially held these down for more than a decade and we’re now having to do a ton of deferred maintenance.
Conservatives are great at this government-level version of “Not changing the oil in your car, crowing about how much you save in maintenance, and then wondering why you suddenly need a new engine”
And in my experience deferred maintenance is often more expensive than incrementally maintaining something on the reg.
I’m in favour of this, much more than the sales tax added.
Toronto needs more income to provide residents with great services. (I’m not saying that we could also waste less money, but both can be true at the same time).
Property tax is a progressive tax, more comes from people who can afford it than those who can’t. This is unlike sales tax where people who make less spend more of their money and will pay a relatively higher tax.
No one likes paying more, but I really appreciate the services that the city provides (and could be providing if it had more budget).
Agree on all points. Frankly speaking, part of the reason housing prices are as high as they are is because it’s so cheap to continue owning one. And by not selling as often, the market prices soar and it becomes more difficult to have more efficient housing options replace single detached homes.
Not only that, but by increasing housing density, it further increases the city’s revenue and reduces cost of the infrastructure since a similar amount of infrastructure can service several times as many people.
Frankly, I hope that this not only passes, but keeps going for a few years. Homes should never be treated as investments, but necessities of life. Unlike investing in businesses, investing in homes puts greater burden on the economy rather than expanding it, and it’s only a matter of time before the bubble bursts, causing millions to love everything.
The average property-owning household being charged an extra $321 a year (quoting the TL;DR bot) seems pretty reasonable to me when the average residential property value in Toronto is about a million dollars
Highly recommend going to Olivia Chow’s budget meetings if you want to hear more about this.
Anyone who complains about this increase “trickling down to renters” doesn’t understand Toronto landlords. They don’t need a tax increase to raise rents, they just do it anyways.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Toronto staff are recommending a nine per cent hike to the city’s residential property tax — the largest single-year increase since amalgamation in 1998 — as they look to fill a nearly $1.8 billion budget shortfall in 2024 and a grim long-term fiscal outlook.
“It is no secret that this is going to be a challenging financial year,” Carroll told reporters, adding that higher property tax bills are necessary to maintain important city services.
According to city staff, the property tax increase would cost the average household another $26.75 per month, or about $321 annually, and generate $380 million in additional revenue this year.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow has been calling on Ottawa for months to provide more money for refugee claimants, who currently account for nearly half of the city’s shelter residents — a figure that has rapidly expanded since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Avi Bodenstein, a Toronto homeowner for the past 10 years, said the increase in taxes will hurt residents and she is skeptical the extra money will be spent “properly.”
According to city staff, the proposed budget shifts $578 million in sustained financial impacts from the pandemic on to Toronto’s tax base, as relief funds from other levels of government have stopped flowing.
The original article contains 1,190 words, the summary contains 202 words. Saved 83%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
