A day after Londoners learned there would not be tax freeze for a third consecutive year, Mayor Joe Fontana is accepting responsibility for not delivering on his promise.
“Sometimes you have to say that, you know what, getting to zero is not going to be the right decision, that we need a lot more flexibility,” Fontana says.
Instead of another tax freeze the average London homeowner will see a 1.2 per cent increase, or an extra $30 per year for a home assessed at $200,000.
But there will also be a few other additions to property tax bills for 2013.
The new funding model for water approved last year has resulted in an eight per cent increase, or about $25, and sewage rates are rising seven per cent, or about $33.
So the average family will actually see an increase in their tax bill of about $88 annually.
Fontana was elected on promises of a four-year tax freeze and creating 10,000 new jobs.
But when asked about voters who may feel deceived, Fontana says “I don’t know about deceived. I’ve tried, but I’m also practical and pragmatic and realistic.”
Londoners meanwhile are divided over whether an elected official must fulfil promises, whether most people won’t remember the promise anyway or if it was ever a practical idea.
Council was also split, with Councillors Dale Henderson, Bud Polhill and Paul Van Meerbergen pushing to hit zero even in the final hours.
“We did get from 5.5 to 1.2,” Van Meerbergen says, “but the point is we could have gone down further and the people of London, I believe, are demanding that.”
Fontana meanwhile is now focusing on the unemployment rate in London, which at 8.5 per cent is the same as when he was elected in 2010.
He says a tax freeze will be the goal again for the 2014 budget, but the focus at city hall must shift more to job creation.
That shift may be why the only major change to the budget Thursday night was to reallocate $1.1 million to a reserve fund in support of the Investment and Economic Prosperity Committee.
