It's Toronto municipal budget launch day!!! Livetoots & commentary to come.
- Livestream starting at 11 am EST / 1767888000 Unix time
- Presentation materials will be posted on the item page
Discussion
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And we're live! Budget chief Shelley Carroll welcomes everyone to the newly upgraded Committee Room 1, "which we're calling 'the bridge'. I have Lt. Sulu to my left, and Deanna Troi…" She also reminds councillors that the acoustics have been much improved so they should have their private conversations elsewhere.
There are various opportunities for public feedback coming up, both virtually and in person, on Jan. 14/15 and 20/21: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/budget-finances/city-budget/how-to-get-involved-in-the-budget/
The Budget Committee then votes on it on the 23rd and it goes to Council on Feb. 10.
City Manager Paul Johnson jokes that, based on his hairline, he wants his Star Trek analogue to be Jean-Luc Picard. Here's the presentation (PDF).
The main number: a 2.2% residential property tax increase. Quick refresher on how property taxes work in Toronto (note: Substack link.)
2.2% is relatively meagre, basically the bare minimum, so it will be interesting to dig into the details and see what they're cutting/delaying or where they're getting the money.
Lmao the special yellow bar for "unanticipated budget pressures".
Unanticipated pressures: $268M
- Provincial change in Automated Speed Enforcement ($99M)
- Declining transit ridership ($39M)
- Added refugee and asylum pressure – at time of submission, prior to federal agreement ($109M)
- Extended paramedics hiring plan ($7M)
The City Manager notes that the number of refugees/asylum claimants in the shelters system has plummeted (I'm assuming based on federal law changes) and that the City has reached an agreement with the federal government on funding for refugee/asylum claimant shelters (drastically cut last year).
He also touts the City's "progress" in kicking out people forced to shelter in parks, which, that sounds like an expenditure and not a budget win, but ok
CHART! CHART! CHART! CHART!
(This chart is in the budget presentation every year.)
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CFO Stephen Conforti is going over the details. A 2.2% residential property tax increase means that expenditures basically have to be kept flat. (That means budget cuts and putting stuff off, like hiring & repair backlog.)
Now the requisite annual complaining trying to make the public aware that the biggest revenue tools available to the City are not directly impacted by economic growth.
Obligatory "scary scenario of how we'd fill the opening budget gap without revenue tools" thing involving closing all libraries, getting rid of shelter & affordable housing programs, etc. No one has actually proposed anything like this since…well, I don't even Rob Ford seriously proposed that. Cllr Stephen Holyday would probably go for it though.
Side note: I was thinking about going in to City Hall in person, but this way I can look out the window and see birds and the sky and stuff while listening to this
Oh my gosh there's a veritable SWARM of house finches taking baths in a puddle of melted snow. I've only ever seen like 2 house finches at once.
Uh, anyway, the CFO explains that some of this year's budget strategy amounts to kicking the can down the road.
Now on to the matter of development charges (slide 31), one-time charges developers pay for new developments. Provincial legislation has severely cut development charges, when they must be paid (Bill 17), and what they can be used for. Therefore, as a note says, "Current level of revenue is insufficient to support approved and planned spending."
"We are now going to see reserve funds slowly whittled down," Conforti says, and as a result about $300M has to be cut from the capital budget (and added onto the iceberg. ICEBERGGGGG)
Sorry, I missed the SOGR (State of Good Repair) slide because I was watching this video of every instance of Owen Wilson saying "wow": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxiVYEjp0Ww (via @mayintoronto)
And now, the shit no one cares about: increases to water and waste management fees (3.75% for each). Adds up to an extra $50-60 for the average household.
Right! Coming up:
- January 14-15: telephone town halls
- January 14-16: service area presentations—that's when every division makes a mini-presentation to Budget Committee. Highly recommend checking out.
- January 23: Budget Committee wrap-up
- Feb. 1: mayor's proposed budget released
- Feb. 10: special Council meeting to pass the budget
It's lunchtime but they vote to extend the meeting to finish everything up.
I've mentally checked out but there's still some tidbits from Q&A. Conforti mentions that ~40% of City development charge revenue goes to transit, whereas in Vaughan it's primarily water mains (and they are also structured differently so it's not a direct comparison)
"Yes! Yes, we run their subway for them," Carroll laughs in response to a bit of off-mic snark.
In response to a question from Cllr Crisanti, the CFO says every 1% residential property tax increase generates about $50M in revenue. (This figure obviously changes a bit each year and has crept steadily up over the years; it's good to know the current number.)
Cllr Fletcher gives us a very short overview of the City Building Fund levy which is on top of residential property taxes. (It was introduced as the Scarborough subway levy under Rob Ford, and then John Tory added in housing/other large infra stuff & it became a "City Building Fund".) I think we should probably rename it the "Mayoral Legacy Fund" and let every mayor tack on a few per cent for their pet project.
Had to make coffee and talk to roommate, missed a bit. Before I forget, I just want to mention this bit from a City press release I got in my email this morning:
We’re making Toronto more fair by asking empty home speculators and luxury property buyers - the top 2% of all buyers - to chip in more to make life more affordable.
I've been ignoring this because it's completely meaningless, you could always pay more property taxes than required, and someone always brings up the low uptake on this at every Council budget meeting as a specious argument for why people don't want higher taxes. OK now back to ignoring it.
Carroll thanks Cllr Cheng for properly referring to a "reserve draw" rather than calling it "raiding" the reserve funds. She asks CFO Conforti if there are any reserve funds being used for something that isn't their intended purpose.
I just gotta say that if there were, it would be an incredibly stupid idea to actually say it out loud
Oh, presently there is a technical briefing for members of the media which I totally forgot about. However I am used to digging through budget documents so I think I'll be fine without it.
me walking into budget info sessions: https://youtu.be/IEhHEOIYgMY
thanks for following along everyone! I'm gonna go outside now