2012 Budget

toronto

After months of consideration and debate, my colleagues and I on City Council passed the 2012 operating and capital budgets. It was a challenging process that required an enormous amount of hard work from everyone involved. I believe that this budget successfully ensures our valued services are funded while showing fiscal responsibility. We owe a great deal of thanks to Toronto city staff and the members of the budget committee as well as the thousands of residents who called, emailed and came to City Hall to provide input throughout the process.

In the end we continued to fund vital programs for seniors and women’s groups, TTC routes, school pools, day cares, ice rinks, shelters and community centres. It is important to note that the funding to these services accounted for approximately 0.15% of the budget. At the same time, the city will still be putting well over $100 million of the surplus towards reducing our capital debt.

This budget marks the first decline in gross expenditures since amalgamation with a $20 million decrease – reaffirming this council’s commitment to building a sustainable, affordable and well-managed city. We also limited the property tax increase to 2.5% which works out to $60 a year for the average homeowner. When taken with last year’s 0% increase, residents will have only seen their property taxes rise by 1.25% annually over the past two years. It is important that we take tax pressure off seniors on fixed incomes who still live in their homes as well as working families.

Ultimately, I believe this budget shows the spirit of compromise that makes Toronto such a great city to live and work in. We’ve listened to residents from all over the city and responded to their concerns as best as possible while continuing to work towards fiscal sustainability.

Budget information for each program and agency, board and commission is located in both the Operating Analyst Notes and Capital Analyst Notes.