Posted by Greater Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Bill Bradley
The final tax hike for property owners is expected to be
decided shortly. The bad news is it could amount to nearly 12
per cent.
The finance committee will meet tonight to discuss the capital
levy hike. Already, a base budget rise of 3.6 per cent and a
water and wastewater hike of 5.2 per cent has been approved by
city council. The third issue is the capital levy rise, which
is used to fund infrastructure spending. Originally, city
council hoped the levy could be zero given a sympathetic
federal budget.
But city taxpayers may see a larger increase in taxes, due in
part to the new federal infrastructure money announcements by
the federal government in their Jan. 27 budget.
In a finance committee document prepared by Greater Sudbury
city financial officer Lorella Hayes, she noted that in order
for the city to access anywhere from $170 to $255 million in
federal funds, the city would have to put up anywhere from $56
to $85 million.
However, she indicated only $15.8 million of debt capacity
financing was available for the third option of her
proposal. That means a capital levy of 2.27 per cent would have
to be added on top of the tax and water rate hikes, for a jump
in taxes of 11.5 per cent. The 2.27 capital levy would generate
$4 million. A 0.5 per cent capital levy, as originally proposed
last fall, would only raise the number just under $900,000.
"This would somewhat curtail the existing capital works program
going forward," she noted.
City politicians were hopeful the federal budget would not
require any capital levy to be added to the 8.8 per cent tax
hike.
During a Tuesday night rally and town hall meeting in Sudbury,
Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton was critical about the federal
government's infrastructure program, Building Canada. He spoke
during a meeting for laid off Xstrata workers at the Quality
Inn.
"The federal government has failed to deliver on the
infrastructure stimulus that we need. The concern we have been
raising is the requirement that municipalities have to match
the federal funding along with the province. What if the
province or the municipality does not have the money to match?"
Layton said taxpayers would be asked to ante up, though many
are cash strapped.
Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus, who was also present for
the meeting, said federal infrastructure money for smaller
cities in the north was just being announced.
"They announced the Building Canada program in October. On
Friday, the first announcements were made, from what I have
heard, for smaller towns."
