City Considers New Fees To Cover Budget Shortfall
Posted November 5, 2009 7:00 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It looks as though Torontonians will soon have to pay more to ride the Red Rocket and new charges are now also being considered at City Hall to deal with a massive budget shortfall.
Two new fees are being tabled by local politicians. One is a $50 charge for homeowners and businesses to open a new account to pay their property taxes and the second is a reported $35 fee to transfer ownership of an existing water or solid waste bill.
City Hall is scrambling to deal with a $400 million to $500 million shortfall in its 2010 operating budget and budget chief Shelley Carroll admits user fees will go up because of it.
“What I’m saying is that we have to talk about those types of things that sustain major cities throughout the world,” Carroll said on Thursday.
“During last year’s budget cycle, we spent 20 million dollars on late-night buses that no one is taking,” countered Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong.
He was one of several city councillors and provincial politicians voicing their opposition to the idea.
The new charges, and the possible raises to existing fees, will be discussed at a meeting Monday and if approved, could go into effect Jan. 1.
Carroll also recently floated the idea of bringing in a municipal sales tax — a move that U.S. centres such as New York City and Chicago have used to help balance the books. The city would have to get approval from the province to introduce the new measure.
It doesn’t look good.
“We don’t think a general sales tax is a good idea and we’re not prepared to entertain that from the city of Toronto,” outlined Municipal Affairs Minister Jim Watson.
“For the past number of years we have the land transfer tax, we have the personal vehicle tax, there’s going to be a billboard tax coming through soon, now you add onto that the GST … the PST, you’re going to have the harmonized sales tax (HST) in and now you’re going to have the SST, the Shelley sales tax coming in,” Minnan-Wong added.
“This is the last thing we need,” Coun. Michael Walker said. “We need to have political leadership that lives within its means and not dreams up creative uses for other people’s money.”
Transit riders are also facing a future increase, possibly as high as a quarter for a cash fare, in the New Year. The expected hike would hit Metropass users the hardest, raising the cost of the card by $17 to $126.
Facing a $100 million shortfall and with little to no chance of receiving more money from the provincial or federal governments, a fare hike may be the only way the TTC can raise funds. Commission Chair Adam Giambrone has already ruled out service cuts.