Saturday, December 6, 2008

How should the Region use returned tax funds?

For years the Region of York has been forced to send our tax dollars to Toronto to fund their social programs -- often providing residents of Toronto with services that York Region was unable to provide for our own residents. It has been a thorn in our side for many years. This pooling is being phased out. Each year it is reduced until we don't send any dollars south by the year 2013.

In 2004 we paid $79 million dollars. In 2009 we will be sending $13.2 million less than in 2008, allowing those dollars to be used for service here in York Region.

The question to be answered is what will these funds be used for?
  • Reduced tax burden to residents
  • Enriched social programs
  • More recreation facilities
  • More arts programming
  • More support to seniors
  • More health facilities/programs
  • Reduce infrastructure debt
  • Build/upgrade infrastructure
Let us know what do you think they should be used for? Make some suggestions and we will post a poll to get community input.

Use the envelope and pencil icons immediately below to forward this post to friends or leave a comment.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since the announcement was made that York Region's requirement to pay pooling dollars to Toronto was going to be phased out, I have indicated that first it must be taken out of the budget, thereby reducing the tax burden to the residents. Once that is done, and the resdients are advised what the budget is without those costs, then the normal process of enhancing or adding services should start. In others words they are introduced during the budget process as new or enhanced services, considered, and ultimately voted on.

With the way the economy has effected many of our residents this year, it is even more important that all levels of government move back to a budget that covers only the things that must be done, and everything else needs to be parked until the economy stabilizes.

Anonymous said...

A message to Grace. Will you have some citizen involvement in the Aurora budget process that will be underway shortly?
An Open House will be available, and this citizen was wondering if you could perhaps comment on the process.