Some extra cash has surfaced allowing the city to lower a proposed tax increase and produce a balanced operating budget by 2011, Mayor David Miller said in a highly-anticipated announcement Wednesday.
The four-per cent property tax increase outlined in this year’s operating budget will be lowered to 2.9 per cent. The 1.3 per cent increase for businesses will go down to less than one per cent.
Miller said officials discovered an extra $100 million in the city’s coffers and that money will be put toward critical service issues -- mainly offsetting a proposed $16 million increase in user fees -- lowering taxes and a reserve fund to ensure the 2011 operating budget will be balanced.
In the spirit of "sensible financial planning" Miller said the extra cash will be placed into a "tax-stabilization reserve that will allow for a balanced 2011 operating budget with no TTC fare increase, assuming, of course, a 3 per cent tax increase that year and the successful conclusion of the agreed upon negotiations with the province regarding its long-awaited re-assumption of the sharing of TTC operating costs."
More accurate accounting turned up $350 million in surplus - $100 million more than originally projected. That extra money came from cost controls and wage restraints put in place last year, Miller said.
The mayor, who leaves office in October, echoed statements he made when the city unveiled its proposed operating budget last month: "You can't have a great city for free." He's proposing the city adopt a two-year budget plan instead of a one-year blueprint.
The city's budget committee will meet next week to discuss the idea.
Miller noted that unlike its provincial and federal counterparts, the municipal government isn't allowed to post a deficit, despite enduring one of the worst financial crises since the 1930s.