Mayoralty politics came to Toronto's executive committee Wednesday, April 7, as councillors engaged in the penultimate debate on the city's 2010 operating budget prior to next week's special council meeting.
Giorgio Mammoliti, a candidate in the 2010 mayor's race who also sits on the committee, gave notice that he won't support the budget next week unless Toronto seniors are made exempt from having to pay the $60 vehicle registration tax. And he said he also wants to see about $10 million in revenue from a new sign tax going to help the elderly."This vehicle registration tax is one of the biggest mistakes this city has ever made," said Mammoliti, who has also promised to exempt senior citizens from paying any property tax if he's elected. "What I can do is say that if we recognize senior citizens in this city, knowing the crisis that is going to hit shortly with one-third of the population becoming over 65... if you want my vote then I want at least this. It really comes down to the seniors."Mammoliti made the comments at the tail end of the budget process, as the executive committee was considering the budget and getting it ready to go to the full meeting of council.If council passes it when it meets next Thursday, the $9.2 billion city budget will mean a property tax increase of 2.9 per cent on homeowners, and .967 per cent on business property owners. Some user fees will increase, but services will remain largely the same as in 2009. The hit might have been worse on taxpayers, but, several weeks ago city staff found that good investments and lower-than-anticipated costs left Toronto with an unexpected $100-million surplus.The surplus is being used to deliver a slightly lower property tax increase, and bolster the city's reserve funds to help balance the 2011 budget.Mammoliti said the surplus should be used to help seniors instead. He estimated it would cost about $7 million to exempt the elderly from paying the vehicle registration tax.But he said he would take that issue to council. At the committee, budget chief Shelley Carroll chided Mammoliti, pointing out that the vehicle registration fee helped fund transportation projects that elderly homeowners paying property taxes on fixed incomes might not use.And she took Mammoliti to task for trying to draw money from the billboard tax away from arts funding. Instead, she put forward a motion asking staff to look at ways to use the new billboard tax as a justification for increased arts funding.The move was an attempt to mollify arts activists, who supported the billboard tax hoping it would provide guaranteed funding to the arts. Carroll made it clear she wasn't prepared to go quite that far."I'm not directing that exact dollars in the billboard tax go towards the arts - just to report back on how we might fund the arts," she said. "In fact, we've dragged our heels for so long now it will take more than the billboard revenue to catch up. We're down at $18 per capita on arts spending - in Montreal, the city is at $25 per capita."Devon Ostrom of the arts group beautifulcity.ca was cautiously optimistic following Carroll's motion."I think they're going in the right direction; it's a matter of making sure they keep going in the right direction," he said.The budget will go on to Toronto Council Thursday April 15.