The following article appeared in the July 3 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
City councillors Ian Findlay and Vicki Beard heard one strong message from a group of their Ward 2 constituents yesterday: no higher taxes.
“The message is loud and clear,” Findlay said near the end of a meeting with a dozen constituents on resident Bob Silveri’s back patio.
Gena Simpson bristled at council mulling a 6.5 per cent tax increase for next year, in a budget process that began early this year and will continue through the fall.
Simpson said she’s paying slightly more than $3,108 this year for her 1,525-square-foot two-storey home on Caribou Crescent, up from $2,121 in 1999.
“I just can’t believe how my taxes have been raised,” Simpson said after the meeting. “That’s quite a hike.”
Gord Hill told the councillors that ward residents “pay high taxes” for relatively modest homes. He concurred with Simpson that taxes have climbed significantly over the years, so something’s out of whack.
Silveri noted his residential tax is up $600 over five years.
“That’s a lot,” Silveri said.
The last thing resident Eliza Pigozzo said she wants to face is the prospect of having to sell her house because taxes are too high.
A 5.5 per cent hike maintains current services in the face of rising costs like labour and fuel and the remaining one per cent is for new services, Findlay noted.
“We’ll have about six months to figure out how to bring that lower,” Findlay said. “Nothing’s been approved by city council . . . so we have to sharpen our pencils.”
A key, Findlay said, is evaluating whether city hall is getting full value for what it spends on services and where it might pare them. That may include cutting park maintenance and sidewalk clearing in winter, he noted.
Members of this informal group questioned spending money on new items like a proposed skating rink for the new city administration building when the city’s struggling to maintain parks. They urged council to look at innovations to counter tax increases, like outsourcing city services and improving municipal efficiency.
In fact, Silveri said any city staff wage increases should be tied to productivity improvements.
At the least, Hill said, councillors should study giving more work to the private sector. But Beard said the risk is the level of service may decline.
Several people also vented about current services, citing slow snow removal on neighbourhood streets.
“It’s a mess,” Girolamo Galluccio said of the street grid in winter.
They also complained about inefficient public transit. Too often, Silveri said, he’s seen city buses running empty or carrying only a few passengers.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Beard said the city’s challenge is finding the money to improve the bus system and replace aging infrastructure like sewers.
If there’s a need to replace infrastructure, why build a proposed new library and downtown parkade, Silveri asked.
Beard responded these are needed to maintain a healthy downtown and attract new businesses to Guelph.
Findlay, who sits on the Guelph Public Library board, said the downtown branch attracts 2,000 visitors a day, making it the main downtown attraction.