Torontonians will have to face a 2.23 per cent property tax hike next year, as a result of a vote at city hall Wednesday night.
Councillors voted 32 -13 in favour of the hike, angering Mayor Rob Ford who promptly took to Twitter to blast the decision.
“I’m very disappointed that city council has chosen to pass a budget that will increase the average household property tax by 2.73 per cent,” he tweeted, factoring in the current market value assessment also done on properties each year. "There were a number of ways to reduce the tax burden on Toronto residents in 2014. What was missing was the will to look for savings."
The residential tax hike includes a 0.5 per cent levy to help fund a shortfall in the extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line into Scarborough -- an extension that Ford loudly supported and voted for.
Council is still debating other matters in the budget but the property tax issue has been the main point of contention between councillors.
Ford has previously said that he wouldn't support a budget with more than a 1.75 per cent property tax hike and has accused councillors of returning to their “tax and spend” ways after stripping him of many of his powers in November.
Earlier Wednesday, Ford said councillors will have to “answer to the taxpayers” if they vote against a number of cost-cutting budget amendments he planned to introduce on the floor of council later this afternoon.
“I don’t think we have enough fiscally responsible councillors,” Ford said, when asked if he thought his amendments had any hope of being adopted. “The taxpayers are the ones they are shooting down, though. They may think they are hurting me but they are hurting the taxpayers and when they go knocking on doors in October they will have to answer for why they shot down my motions.”
Ford has promised to introduce $60 million in potential savings on the $9.6-billion operating budget, but he has refused to answer questions on what form those savings may take.
A report in the Toronto Sun on Wednesday morning suggested that the savings include generating $19 million in revenue from finding corporate sponsorships for Pan American Games celebrations and saving about $3.1 million by eliminating city council's general expense fund.
“If you read the Sun I gave them some information and they are pretty straight-forward,” Ford said. “I think every councillor has an idea of what I am going to move. I have been here 14 years, so I think they know what I am going to do.”
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, meanwhile, has said that the proposed increase is “fair” and in an interview with CP24 Wednesday he said that he believes most of Ford’s proposals have already been discounted.
“What exactly he (Ford) will propose I don’t know but according to the budget chief his proposals have already been vetted, they have already been looked at analyzed and they have been discounted,” he said.
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