The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition has learned that John Tory intends to make Toronto taxpayers pay twice for the grey and green Bins introduced by the Miller administration in 2008.
Up until now, the user fee associated with waste collection from these new bins had been offset by a tax rebate. Tory plans to remove this level of tax protection, allowing the city to collect the user fee and increase the property tax burden on residents.
“It’s very disappointing to see John Tory relapse into his old pattern of not being able to say no to bad ideas,” said Toronto Taxpayers Coalition President Matthew McGuire. “He won the election by convincing Torontonians that he held fiscally conservative values, but it seems that he’s fallen under the sway of a growing group of politicians who are keenly focused on finding new ways of taxing the overburdened citizen.”
Budget documents estimate that rolling back the rebate would bring an additional $17.9M into the city coffers. However, there is no evidence that suggests that this money will be dedicated to cost recovery for the new garbage bins, or that the revenue will be going into the city’s operating budget.
Over the weekend, the coalition set up a portal to allow taxpayers to send an email to their councillor urging them to keep the rebate.
“Mayor Tory has introduced this tax grab at a time when the city is saving more money than ever on garbage collection thanks to privatization, coming off the heels of his decision to deplete the city’s capital reserves to pay for the same budget,” observed McGuire. “This raises serious questions about the long-term health of our city’s finances, and about the Mayor’s ability to manage those finances.”
“This amounts to a 0.75% tax hike on Toronto taxpayers, breaking a promise to keep tax hikes below the rate of inflation.”
The proposed new Solid Waste Rates are the second item on today’s agenda. Taxpayers can send a letter to their councillor in under 45 seconds by visiting http://www.torontotaxpayer.ca/stop-torys-trash-tax/
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