Proposed 7.4% tax hike leaves Mississauga mayor sounding desperate

[eldiablo]

All those that voted for ol' Hazel, you've received your New Year's present.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/...desperate?bn=1

Cheers.

[cheapmeister]

Why 7.4%? Brampton is only 2%.

[Nettles]

7.4% of already ridiculous housing prices? This is ()@#)$*)@#( gov't should bail us out of the mayor's lack of planning if they're gonna support dying banks.

[whampoa]

While in Markham 0.0% tax hike, suckers!

[stealth]

I didnt vote for her. Shes outlived her usefulness a long time ago.

[diggler649]

So who will be the first poster to turn this into a city vs suburbs debate?

[Crinkle_cut]

7.4% to help offset the cost of defending her son Peter in his failed deal with the City, to which could have received a huge payout if the deal actually went through.

7.4% is quite a lot though. I would have expected something more in line with inflation of 2-3%.

[thelefteyeguy]

wow wow wowsers...

[stealth]

7.4% to help offset the cost of defending her son Peter in his failed deal with the City, to which could have received a huge payout if the deal actually went through.

7.4% is quite a lot though. I would have expected something more in line with inflation of 2-3%.

The chickens have come home to roost.

[zz000ter]

Everyone wants lots of city services
All city employees want high pay
Residents don't want tax increases

Who should win?

[Nettles]

Screw the services. Outside of garbage collection (and I guess transit, fire, police, hospital and snow removal is necessary)...the rest is all just sprinkles and can be cut. There should be some type of federal law which prevents this type of **** form happening to protect the residents and a municipal gov't from overspending or not saving as in this case

[Nettles]

Mississauga doesn't have news coverage outside of The Mississauga News which is more like a community news paper if anything so people probably weren't even aware of this proposed increase earlier unless they read or check the Mississauga News' website and therefore couldn't protest.

Mississauga wants to be treated like a city but refuses to create the revenue generating programs that a city uses but they want to spend the way a city does. Someone posted this on the Mississauga news website and they're completely right. Political leaders shouldn't be able to get away with these types of increases...councillors are complete failures at their jobs now and I'm not sure why. Maybe they're incompetent or they don't have enough political power against a mayor but a primary function of their job should be to handle city finances which they've failed so badly at:

Any council that approves a 13.2% tax increase in 2 years is incompetent

These are tough times, make the tough decisions. Focus on the priority municipal services residents expect like transport and fixing potholes. Dump or cut the pet projects. If you can't then resign before you take Mississauga down the same path to nowhere as Toronto

Things don't add up here!

Come ON Council! Passing tax increases 2 years in a row that are higher than inflation, higher than average wage increases, highter than the wage increases you give your own workers? What you are effectively voting in favour of is a reduction in the standard of living, in the available spending power of all residents and less discretionary income for all of us. Get creative, get tough and get it done!

[zz000ter]

What is the money being used for?
See here
http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/cityhall/budgetbook

and
http://www.mississauga.ca/file/COM/2...ramSummary.pdf

Interesting that $132M out of $574M budget goes to Mississauga Transit!!!!
Labour costs are $104M

Recreation and Parks = $90M of which about $60 is labour

Fire and emergency services = $85M of which $72M is for labour

A big whack of residential property tax goes to region of Peel where 25% gets spent on education

[zz000ter]

I wonder if we could set up a city of single people aged 20 to 45 - no education expenses
with a volunteer fire-department

Should cut property tax costs nicely

[matdwyer]

I wonder if we could set up a city of single people aged 20 to 45 - no education expenses
with a volunteer fire-department

Should cut property tax costs nicely

Prostitution costs would be through the roof, not worth it.