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And how much longer now till the next municipal election???

Maybe this means that people will actually go out and vote in the next municipal election. I couldn't believe the number of people who retained their seats in the last election until I saw the lower voter turnout.

You would think so. It blows my mind the indifference people have to municipal politics.

Hold on there...
By reading closely, you'll see that only the town's portion (which is roughly one quarter or one percent of your assessed value) is going up by that amount,

For a $300,000 house, approx taxes of $3000, $750 of which goes to the town based on this article,
That $750 portion is what is being increased 7.5% next year, or $56 (2 Zeesh hospital parking visits), or $4.68 per month, or about 15 cents a day..

I agree, I'm not a fan of tax increases either, but you better get your numbers straight before you make a group presentation in front of the town, otherwise you won't have a leg to stand on.

ALSO, "Much of this year’s $35 million capital budget is paid for by development-related charges.".. and how many of you were against the rise in DCs? the more the builder has to pay for, the less WE pay to pay for. you should all be FOR increases in DCs if you're against property tax increases.

You were fine up to this part.. Builders who are in business will just pass the costs on to you. They are opposing the costs because they don't want to have to increase their end-user prices and possibly deter people from buying homes because of the resulting higher price.

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You're 100% correct, but I won't be buying new, and most of us on here already own Milton homes and won't be affected by that.
Pass on the charges to the people coming to Milton in the future

Also, if new home prices rise, that just does better for the value of our resale ones! it's Win/Win! (Win/Win/Win, actually!) hehe


lol, anytime... I just hope the article was accurate.

You are just following along with the region's party line, which is no more accurate then the one put forth by the developers. The so called "short fall" in development charges and the amount that it could drive your taxes up is based on the following calculation:

(Total DC "shortfall") / (total current assessed value of the city)=(Potential Tax increase)

I draw your attention to the fact that the number used for this calculation is the current assessed value of the town... there is no value given to the property taxes these new homes will pay! I haven't run the numbers for the current Halton Regional charges, but when we went through that exercise in Guelph last year we found that the new taxes paid by the new developments paid off this "shortfall" in less then two years.

But why should the current residents care if the rates are too high and slow down development? The problem lies in the staging of the spending... a lot of very high cost infrastructure is going to be built over the next few years in the region. If the new growth doesn't happen, there will be no payment of development charges, and then the entire cost will be pushed back onto the existing tax base in the form of paying the finance costs for the new, but unused infrastructure. I would be asking for the potential tax costs if the region doesn't meet its growth targets over the next 10 years, or how much each 10% under growth projections per year will cost.

This isn't a simple cut and dry issue, and there are potentially huge tax increases in store for everyone if growth isn't handled properly.

Marc

Bottom line is..Taxes are Taxes. One way or another, you're going to get it, whether you like it or not.
If you don't like the taxes in a specific place, there's always the option to relocate to a less expensive area.
Everyone complains about infrastructure problems in Milton, obviously the money has to come from somewhere for the improvements.

Um ... we just did that. And now because Milton may raise taxes at ridiculous rates, the solution is for people to just move someplace else?


Not everyone complains about infrastructure. I don't complain about it. Most Miltonians don't complain about it (though I do hear many -- especially in old milton -- grumbling about the town spending like drunken sailors on stuff like $1M imported glass walls for town hall). The vocal minority complains about infrastructure, and yes they do so loudly and they do so often, but that's hardly the definition of 'everyone'.

IMO, for the town to be raising taxes 7.5% and 9.x%, especially in this economy, is unconscionable. Councillors voting for these types of tax increases will definitely lose my vote.

Having just got back from vacation and preparing for a move this week, its been a challenge to update my blog. I finally made some time and talked about this very issue today.

Council has spent $3 million dollars for instance on Milton Transit, to have brand new buses drive around town empty.

Now if $1.5 million increase in salaries and benefits are the reason for this increase, what would have that $3 million dollars been spent on? It could have eliminated a potential tax increase. In my opinion, town council as lost its focus spending wise and doesnt really see the long term impact of their decisions.

Let me know what you think....

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

This is just another reason for council to look at the impact of their decisions not just now, but 5, 10 or 20 years from now. Bad decisions breed more bad decisions.

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

Mike, just curious, do you know yet if you'll be running again in the next municipal election? I'm hoping to see you and some of the other fresh faces that didn't quite make it last time, return and hopefully win this time around.

Hi Nguyen and other posters

Sorry, but the tax increases mentioned in the paper and in previous years are always the budget to budget increases staff are indicating as the high end of POSSIBLE tax increases. Every municipality does this every year, then the budget committee reviews the staff proposals and whittles down the increase to in last years case +4.4% budget to budget or in real terms +1.2% or about the rate of inflation. As Milton's assessment growth of 2008 was +9.3% which Milton receives a 28% of the assessment growth for its portion.

As I mentioned earlier this month, Milton has one of the lowest municipal tax rates in the GTA, just above the City of Toronto or about .091% of your assessed value including regional and education taxes. Check www.halton.ca and type in tax estimator at the site search icon then 2009 taxes and type in your address where you can see how much you are paying for 2009.

For the average urban Milton house you pay 45% of your taxes to the Region, 28% to the Town and 27% for the property portion of the education levy.

As mentioned earlier in the papers, regional council is committed to a 0% tax increase in 2010 and I expect Milton council will be in the same position despite the growth in town services and facilities.

I encourage everyone to attend the next Milton Council meeting on Monday August 24th at 7.30 pm in the banquet room of the Sports Centre to see the staff proposals and council debate which will continue through the fall until the budget is ratified sometime in December or January.

There is a number of impacts on the Town budget including the new Harmonized sales Tax which is to be implemented on July 1st 2010 which I am learning about at the AMO conference the Mayor other councillors and I are attending this week as well as the new Beaty Library, Fire Halls and firefighters hiring which will be some of the biggest budget increases for 2010.

Looking forward to hearing your comments, concerns and ideas for both the Town and regional budget over the next few months.

Colin Best
Local & Regional Councillor
Milton/Halton
www.colinbest.ca

I hadn't seen that so let me be the first to say here: BRAVO! BRAVO! And I hope your view is the prevailing one among your peers on the town council as well.


See above. Keeping taxes down is key ... how refreshing to hear it may actually happen.

Thank you Colin!

Council eyes budget increase of 2 to 4.5 per cent: http://www.miltoncanadianchampion.com/news/article/275578



Sigh.

I guess it's just so much easier to raise taxes than to look for savings opportunities.

Thank you for your vote, Colin. I wish we had more like you.