Toronto 2010 Budget

StumbleUpon 0 Like 0 Retweet 0 Google +1 0

By Elli Davis, February 17, 2010

Cash out by Quinn Dombrovski

The Toronto budget for 2010 was released yesterday! The $9.2 billion budget is actually the biggest ever. Its main highlights are the 4 percent residential property tax rise, 1.3 percent non-residential tax increase and a promise of a permanent transit funding agreement with the provincial government.

Thanks to the property tax increase, the annual average Toronto home price will rise by $93. There will also be price increase for things such as street parking or some recreational programs. According to Toronto Mayor David Miller, the rises are necessary if we want Toronto to continue doing fine. He claims that homeowners in our city actually paid less residential property taxes in 2009 than any other municipality in the GTA, thus they should not be too unsatisfied.

Well, this is the last budget proposed under the leadership of David Miller. Not a big surprise, residential property tax rose last year too. And yes, in 2009 Toronto was in surplus but it was mainly due to the strike, wasn’t it?