[christiesplits]

From Matt Elliott on Twitter, here's a list of Chow's new staff.

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/954d-mayor.pdf

A lot of ex-NDP and ONDP staffers (not surprising), as well as former city councillor staffers and labour organizers.

 

[DSC]

That doesn't sound right. With no changes to assessment values this year (frozen since 2020 for the full 2016 value), everyone's increase should be the same. The exception would be if there was some major property improvement that would increase the value.

Looking at my final bill (issued in May) the total amount was $4,590.62 compared to $4,354.02. This is a 5.4% increase. Below the national inflation rate of 6.8%. The city portion of the bill (as opposed the unchanged provincial education tax) was up 7.2%.

Yes, mine was also up 5.4%. Maybe @Admiral Beez was looking at the monthly rate between June 2022 and June 2023.

 

[DSC]

My June 2023 property tax bill was up by 12% over my earlier one. I'm okay with paying more if we can fix the city, but I do worry that Chow will hit me with another double digit increase.

That's very bizarre. Do you mean the rate you paid per month in June 2023 vs the monthly you will pay as of July? The monthly payments in first 6 months of each year are always more as they are spread over 5 months because no payments are made in January.

 

[nfitz]

Yes, mine was also up 5.4%. Maybe @Admiral Beez was looking at the monthly rate between June 2022 and June 2023.

If an individual month is up that much, other months must be down.

Looking at the July 2022 to July 2023 payment, my total payment was up 7.3%. The February payment though was only up 3.4% year-over-year.

 

[DSC]

If an individual month is up that much, other months must be down.

Looking at the June 2022 to June 2023 payment, my total payment was up 7.3%. The February payment though was only up 3.4% year-over-year.

The way tax bills work in To is that in January each year you get a bill for 50% of the previous year's tax divided by 5 and it is due in the 5 months February to June (no January payment) By July they have set the new budget so you get a bill for the balance of that year's tax but, because it is spread over 6 months (July-December), it is seldom more than the monthly payment from February to June.

 

[nfitz]

The way tax bills work in To is that in January each year you get a bill for 50% of the previous year's tax divided by 5 and it is due in the 5 months February to June (no January payment) By July they have set the new budget so you get a bill for the balance of that year's tax but, because it is spread over 6 months (July-December), it is seldom more than the monthly payment from February to June.

Maybe there's different choices?

For 15 years, I've been getting 50% of my previous year's tax divided by 3, and paid (at the beginning) of March, April and May. And then the balance of the year spread over 3 months (July, August, and September). Which means the last 3 are always up, because there's 3 payments at each rate, rather than 5 of the old, and 6 of the new.

Looking at the website, there's actually 3 different choices. The third is twice a year. https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/proper ty-taxes-utilities/property-tax/property-tax-due-dates/

The Admiral must be on the 11 payment plan.

 

[rbt]

I don't think the decision will be difficult. The Gardiner is currently Toronto's $17 avocado toast.

It'll be a lot harder than you might expect. Sure, it's $17 avocado toast but if we play nice we might get a $200 in annual groceries bought by the province.

Politics means she will need to consider potential impacts to other programs, both announced and like-to-have, before acting on this item. For example, TTC received roughly $50M as an additional one-off operations subsidy for 2023 from the province. Since the province currently has a budget surplus, could that be made permanent and larger?

 

[tiffer24]

It's unfortunate that John Tory left this city's finances in such a critical mess. We will all be paying for his fiscal incompetence for years to come.

 

[Northern Light]

It's unfortunate that John Tory left this city's finances in such a critical mess. We will all be paying for his fiscal incompetence for years to come.

This is true; however, important to say, its also the responsibility of successive mayors.

Even David Miller avoided directly raising property tax in a material way; instead resorting to an immensely unpopular tax (vehicle registration) which would be subsequently repealed by Mayor (cough) Ford............

Lastman and Ford were both guilty of 'tax freezes (failing to increase for inflation, never mind population growth) in multiple years.

What Tory did was extend that run of failure.

Miller was the least bad; but didn't concretely fix the problem, and indeed, made city services worse in many ways. (that's an entirely different post) ....

 

[toonderly]

For 15 years, I've been getting 50% of my previous year's tax divided by 3, and paid (at the beginning) of March, April and May. And then the balance of the year spread over 3 months (July, August, and September). Which means the last 3 are always up, because there's 3 payments at each rate, rather than 5 of the old, and 6 of the new.

This is a minor minor nitpick and certainly not at the top of the list for priorities for the new mayor. But the way they divide the bills is not so that you pay exactly 1/3 of the 50% for each payment, but instead the first two payments are rounded to the same even dollar amount and the third is for a slightly different amount. E.g if the annual total is 4,403.28, 50% of that would be 2,201.64. The current bill would be for two payments of 734.00 plus the last payment of 733.64. This is fine if you are sitting down to write a cheque for each payment, or even making each payment separately. But when my bank lets me create and future date recurring payments, it's a tiny bit annoying that I can't do it as one recurring payment of 733.88 per month for 3 months to get the total but instead have to do it as 1 recurring payment of 734.00 per month for 2 months and then a third single payment of 733.64.

 

[Northern Light]

This is a minor minor nitpick and certainly not at the top of the list for priorities for the new mayor. But the way they divide the bills is not so that you pay exactly 1/3 of the 50% for each payment, but instead the first two payments are rounded to the same even dollar amount and the third is for a slightly different amount. E.g if the annual total is 4,403.28, 50% of that would be 2,201.64. The current bill would be for two payments of 734.00 plus the last payment of 733.64. This is fine if you are sitting down to write a cheque for each payment, or even making each payment separately. But when my bank lets me create and future date recurring payments, it's a tiny bit annoying that I can't do it as one recurring payment of 733.88 per month for 3 months to get the total but instead have to do it as 1 recurring payment of 734.00 per month for 2 months and then a third single payment of 733.64.

I would like to see the budget for 'year x' set in the fall of 'year x - 1' which is to say a few months before the new budget/tax year actually begins.

There a host of advantages to doing that, particularly on the capital budget side; but the obvious benefit for payees is that you can get advance notice of your impending bill, and which be easily divided into 12 equal amounts.

 

[Towered]

This is true; however, important to say, its also the responsibility of successive mayors.

Even David Miller avoided directly raise property tax in a material way; instead resorting to an immensely unpopular tax (vehicle registration) which would be subsequently repealed by Mayor (cough) Ford............

Lastman and Ford were both guilty of 'tax freezes (failing to increase for inflation, never mind population growth) in multiple years.

What Tory did was extend that run of failure.

Miller was the least bad; but didn't concretely fix the problem, and indeed, made city services worse in many ways. (that's an entirely different post) ....

What about Hall, Rowlands, and Eggleton?

 

[Northern Light]

What about Hall, Rowlands, and Eggleton?

Those were mayors of the Old City of Toronto.

For the most part, the pre-amalgmation City was richer and supported a higher level of public services.

Its very difficult to make comparisons between pre and post '98 Toronto.

 

[ShonTron]

Shelley Carroll would be my pick for speaker.

Moise has burned a lot of bridges here in Ward 13 on his short time on council; my pick between him and Malik would also be Malik.

For similar reasons, I’d leave Bradford out of the exec committee, but I’d try to keep him busy somehow. Mantas, Nunziata, Holyday, Crisanti, and Thompson deserve nothing.

I’d find something challenging but high profile for Matlow and see if he can take on a big issue: TTC Chair.

Ainslie might not be a bad budget chair.

 

[Northern Light]

Moise has burned a lot of bridges here in Ward 13 on his short time on council; my pick between him and Malik would also be Malik.

Hold on there......... this bit sounds interesting..........I'd like to hear more. LOL

I haven't really followed him closely thus far, except for the Allan Gardens issue.