Jennifer Smith

The 2011 Budget Documents are now online and ready for public perusal. Don't bother checking the Town of Milton website - even I couldn't spot them, and I'm more than passing familiar with the site. But happily, Councillor Mike Cluett has a handy set of links to all these documents on his blog.

The budget will be discussed and voted on next week, which means we will be hearing a lot of chest-thumping from some councillors about taxpayers and gravy trains and who knows what. Most councillors made election promises about where they plan to draw the line in terms of tax increases and will be doing their best to keep those promises. But whether they promised no increase, an increase at or below inflation, or just an effort to keep taxes "as low as possible", it's important to understand exactly what is being proposed and what those figures will ultimately mean to your property tax bill, now and in the future.

Here are the numbers:

3.0% - 3.4% = the rate of inflation in Ontario

29% = the Town portion of your tax bill (the rest is for the Region and Education)

5.72% = the original tax levy increase proposed by staff for the Town portion of your property taxes. That increase equals...

2.53% = the amount your taxes would actually increase overall, which amounts to...

$5.58 / month = the property tax impact on a $300,000 home.

3.03% = the suggested target for the tax increase to the Town portion of your tax bill using further budget reductions.

What this means is that, despite the panicked tone you might be hearing from some quarters, Council could pass the entire operating budget as is - including the arts centre, the bike lanes and the weekend buses - and your total tax increase would still be well under the current rate of inflation. That's because the Region is only proposing a 1.4% increase, and the education portion won't be rising at all.

The reductions suggested by staff to reach the lower 3.03% target can be found at the end of the budget summary. They include:

• Eliminating the hiring of new fire fighters
• Canceling the implementation of the bike lane network
• Canceling the implementation of Saturday and evening transit service
• Delaying the opening of the new Milton Centre for the Arts by 2-5 months
• Delaying the opening of the new Main Library by 2-5 months
• Reducing financial assistance for recreational programs

There are a couple of dozen other possible cost cutting measures on the list, and certainly several of them make sense. For example, we could save $50,000 a year by reducing tax rebates offered to owners of vacant buildings. Apparently not many people apply, and frankly I'm not sure we should be encouraging property owners to leave their properties unoccupied.

If we were to bring in just a few of those added reductions, that would leave the Town with quite a bit of wiggle room - enough, perhaps, for a small branch library at Bruce Street.

Of course we could try to slash costs further and save everyone a few bucks, but as someone once said, there's no such thing as a free lunch. With a town growing as fast as ours is, even trying to keep pace with the rate of inflation essentially amounts to moving backwards.  It might look good on paper (or at the ballot box), but since the Town's costs for fuel, labour, energy, etc. are always going up, trying to cut too much means reducing our level of service or - even worse - dumping those costs onto future budgets.

The long-term budget forecast prepared by staff bluntly states the inevitable consequences of cutting this year's operating budget:

"The results of the analysis indicate that tax increases of 7.5% and 5.21% in 2012 and 2013 respectively would be required if Council approves the proposed budget at a 3.89% increase. If a lower tax increase is approved for 2011 this may result in an increase in the tax levy in the forecast years as illustrated on page 347 of the budget document."

With the even lower 3.03% target, next year's increase would have to be well over 8%. On the other hand, if the original 5.89% increase is approved, the tax increases for next year and the year after would be progressively smaller: 5.47% and 5.10% respectively.

My recommendation to Council: Take advantage of the very low Regional tax increase proposed for this year and aim for a 5.7% - 5.9% Town portion increase. That will mean an overall tax increase of well under inflation for your constituents, allowing you to keep your promises and saving us all a major headache next year.