HST proposal gains ground
The cost for infrastructure keeps going up every year. Municipal councils keep juggling their budget numbers to find ways to maintain existing roads and water and sewer lines, and still squeeze out a few dollars for new projects without also having to put the squeeze on local taxpayers.
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has an idea for the provincial government to consider. The Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus (EOWC) has given its approval to the proposal and now the United Counties of PrescottRussell (UCPR) has indicated it is willing to follow the EOWC’s lead in supporting the AMO idea for a one per cent increase to the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). The UCPR’s support is conditional on a guarantee that the HST increase means the extra sales tax money is dedicated to municipal infrastructure works and not just added to the provincial general revenue fund.
UCPR council gave its support to the idea following about a quarter of discussion during its June 28 session. After reviewing the AMO’s six-page Local Share brief, outlining its HST One Per Cent proposal, several mayors expressed concern about some of the potential impacts of raising the HST another percentage point.
“The only problem I have is going into the pockets of the taxpayers,” said mayor Jeanne Charlebois of Hawkesbury.
“Wouldn’t this create an opportunity for upper-tier governments to reduce or eliminate (provincial/municipal) transfer payments?” said mayor Fernand Dicaire of Alfred-Plantagenet Township.
Warden Gary Barton argued that either the federal or provincial governments might see such a plan as an opportunity to cut back on some of their own existing support funding programs, but it would be up to Ontario’s municipalities, through their own lobbying groups, to discourage the idea. “Although they might think that way,” Barton said, “we don’t
want them to.”
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“At least this way the one per cent (increase) is spread across the board,” said Mayor Pierre Leroux. “We’re not just going to the property owners for it.”
UCPR council voted to support the EOWC’s own resolution of support to the AMO’s plan on the condition there be guarantees that the proposed HST increase would fund municipal infrastructure work.