Halton Hills Council is joining towns and cities across the country in asking the provincial and federal governments to redirect a portion of the taxes they collect on property transactions to municipalities.
The motion, brought forward by Halton Hills Mayor Ann Lawlor and passed at the last council meeting, asks the province to allocate a portion of the land transfer tax and the federal government to direct a portion of the GST on property transactions to municipal governments.
“There is a general sense that the budget we approved, the increase was too high and I won’t disagree with that,” Lawlor said of the 9.01 per cent increase on the Town’s portion of the tax bill. “The burdens that are being placed on municipalities right now for basic infrastructure alone are unsustainable.”
The motion states the current sources of municipal revenue, including property taxes and user fees, are insufficient to meet increasing demands for infrastructure investment and that a redistribution of provincial and federal taxes would “provide predictable and sustainable funding to municipalities, allowing for better long-term planning and investment in infrastructure projects that benefit local communities.”
Councillor Clark Somerville, who seconded the motion, said 114 municipalities across the country have passed the resolution or one similar to it. He said if the provincial and federal governments agreed, they could easily designate what municipalities use the funds for.
The mayor said municipalities are asking for their fair share of taxes collected by the other levels of government in order to help deal with the growing infrastructure needs, including roads, bridges, public transit, water systems and other critical services.
“A new funding formula needs to be put forward so that municipalities can have the funding they need in order to manage the resources they are responsible for,” Lawlor said.