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Barrie can’t a-Ford T. O’s budget route

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In Barrie
Mar 2nd, 2011
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Editorial Barrie Examiner March 1 2011
Barrie homeowners should take note of Toronto’s operating budget, which holds the line on taxes.
Passed last week, it fulfills Mayor Rob Ford’s campaign promise of a tax freeze. As much as anything, this is why Toronto voters elected him last Oct. 25.
But Toronto’s budget also deserves another look. How was no tax increase achieved?
By primarily drawing on onetime surpluses and reserve funds, Ford and company were able to balance the books for 2011.
Which raises the question of what will happen next year, when there is no one-time surplus and the reserve funds have been further depleted. What then?
Ford has also asked the Ontario government for more than $150 million in the provincial budget, which the Liberals are expected to unveil in late March. This money would be for city roadwork, public transit projects, a visitor centre at Fort York and to renew programs to fund subsidized child care, housing and services for immigrants.
Because the Ontario-Toronto cost-sharing deal isn’t indexed to inflation, the city needs another $11.5 million to balance the books.
There’s no guarantee Ford will get the money; Ontario’s government is not exactly awash in cash, although this is a provincial election year (Oct. 6) and buying votes might be Premier Dalton McGuinty’s only chance at another majority government.
If Toronto doesn’t get its provincial money, it might lose 3,500 subsidized child-care spaces. Wasn’t that the other half of Ford’s promise — no service loss while holding the line on taxes?
How does all of this relate to Barrie, which is almost one-seventeenth the size of Toronto?
Last fall, Barrie voters had to choose between Joe Tascona and Jeff Lehman as their next mayor. Tascona was promising a tax freeze, Lehman said he would do what he could to keep taxes down, but not at the cost of cutting important services.
Lehman won the election and now he and city council are wrestling with this year’s operating budget. It will be debated beginning March 28.
This council is not burdened with a campaign promise of no tax increase, although there are certainly councillors who do not want a property tax increase, whatever the reason.
And every effort should be made to keep any tax increase minimal. Rising electricity and gasoline prices, not to mention food, are making it difficult enough for city residents to stay in the black.
But in the same breath, certain city services cannot be compromised. A growing city needs more police officers and firefighters, for example.
At the January police board meeting, Chief Mark Neelin said calls for service had increased by 5.8% from December 2009 to December 2010.
The city is already planning for a temporary fifth fire hall in south-Barrie, and that could happen before year’s end — which would mean more firefighters would be needed.
In the coming weeks, councillors will hear from their other departments about how much more they will need. Few are expected to ask for less.
It isn’t always a question of what a municipality can afford. Some services simply cannot be compromised. Unlike school boards, local governments have the ability to raise property taxes to make up the difference.
And since municipalities must balance their budgets, some difficult choices must be made in terms of expenditures and revenues.
Expect a tax increase in Barrie this year. The question is how big.

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