Who wouldn’t want a zero per cent tax increase?

I was asked by local media yesterday about how I felt about Joe Fontana’s pledge to have no tax increases for the next four years. Well, what’s not to love? Who wouldn’t like to be able to campaign on that?

But is it doable? Is it realistic to suggest that we can keep everything we have, continue to pay off our debts, meet our contractual obligations, pay for our regulated programs, expand services to new homeowners and industries, without any extra costs even though we still have inflation?

The last person to make those kinds of promises was Ottawa mayor, Larry O’Brien, in his 2006 election bid. He won the election but four years later taxes have increased by 14%. This year the tax increase was 3.77% and transit fares went up by 7.5%.  O'Brien is not the front runner in the current campaign for mayor.

Windsor recently announced a zero per cent tax increase. To get there, they had to eliminate their municipal daycare programs, getting rid of the equivalent of 74 full-time staff as well as making cuts to parks and engineering departments, among others.

Fontana says he can do it without any cuts. He’ll just increase the tax base through growth.

What kind of growth will it take to make up the difference?

Currently, 1 per cent of our budget is equivalent to $4.2M. That means in order to cover the 2.7% increase adopted recently by council as a preliminary target, Fontana would have to find another $12.4 M in revenues. Add to that the additional $8M required for our water and wastewater sustainability plan, and you’ve got over $20M to find in assessment growth. In terms of growth, this would mean adding at least 8,000 new single family homes to the tax base every year. But our population growth is only about 3,000 per year. Who will buy these homes?

What will attract newcomers to London are jobs. So what about attracting businesses and industry to London in order bring more people here?

Attracting industry and luring businesses away from their existing locations can be an expensive undertaking. Currently, taxpayers pick up the tab for servicing new industries to the tune of nearly $7M per year. Where will the money come from to double or triple that? What kind of incentives will we have to give to businesses to locate here? How will the costs be covered?

To have the kind of business and industrial growth envisioned by Fontana would mean something on the order of ten new One London Places added every year for the next four years or two and a half Masonville Malls.

And don’t forget the time lag. It takes about two years to get the buildings up and the taxes flowing.

Fontana suggests that all this can be accomplished by simply relaxing the rules a little bit, not standing in the way of anyone with a piece of land he or she may want to “develop”. No wonder he has the support of the Building and Construction Trades.

It will be interesting to see who the rest of his backers and allies are. It would appear there is plenty of opportunity for assessment growth for political campaigns.

Municipal Election 2010

Today I filed my nomination papers to run for a position on council in Ward 9 in the 2010 municipal election to be held on October 25th. This opportunity occurred as a result of the decision of Councillor Susan Eagle to leave London to take up pastoral responsibilities in Barrie.


I am very torn about this decision. While I look forward to campaigning hard in the ward that has been my home for more than three decades most of my colleagues and I will really miss Susan, both as a friend and as a voice for social justice on city council. She is eloquent, knowledgeable and compassionate. And very savvy. Hers will be big shoes to fill, despite the fact that her feet are certainly smaller than mine. I am fortunate that she is endorsing my candidacy and will be a mentor to me until her term expires next October.

When I ran for board of control in 2006, I had no idea how interesting the next three years would be. There was a lot to learn, much reading to be done, and people to work with. I had made commitments to the electorate about my priorities but clearly they were not achievable without the support of others. Getting to know the other members of council, learning from them, and working together to get things done has been a revelation and a joy.

A lot has been accomplished. The board of control has been abolished in favour of more accountable governance, decisions about the pace and direction of growth are more firmly in the hands of the city, and the city’s finances are becoming increasingly manageable. We are making gains in environmental and economic sustainability.

These gains have been gotten by hard work and collaboration as well as some confrontation. But they can be as easily lost as they were hard to achieve. We need these things to become part of the status quo and we need to build on them.

That is what I hope to accomplish by asking the voters of Lambeth and Byron to select me as their voice on council. I won’t be Susan, but I will bring commitment, hard work and integrity to the job. I ask you to help me in this venture. I can’t do it alone.

Check here for the LPF story.