"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday 2 March 2014

Difficult to Construct and Easily Misconstrued. DCs are complicated but very precise.

Development charges are complicated . It's easy  to surrender to advice from experts. But not wise.

To calculate the charge , the town  has to figure out , five years in advance, facilities and equipment needed to maintain  a prescribed  "standard of service "

If a facility included in the  calculation doesn't get built within the five years, the  standard is reduced The facility is deemed not to have been needed  because the standard was exaggerated.

USE IT OR LOSE IT is the driving  principle.

In the GTA , billions are collected from developers.....AKA the housing inductry.

 DCs   are the geese that laid the golden eggs.

There's no  public sympathy for developers.  Nor do I suggest there should be.New growth should not be a burden to existing residents.

And yet, taxes keep rising.

At the same time,  it's the height of foolishness to imagine the housing industry bears the cost of
DCs.

It wouldn't surprise me if fifty per cent of cost  of a new home in the GTA   are taxes collected  under the radar  by  all three levels of government.

The homebuyer pays the freight.

Five years ago when  DC's were established  developers delegated to Council. The economy was down. Building  had halted. There was a financial crisis.

Since then , an Ontario Municipal Board appeal succeeded against  Orangeville.. Funds inappropriately collected must be returned.

Aurora   and others also have  to return  inappropriately collected funds  to developers.

In the last DC calculation ,an amount was included for a joint  parks and works facility.

About a fifth  could be charged to new growth in accordance with projected population growth.

The cost  of the facility forecast would be a fraction of  the $26 million approved on Tuesday .

We didn't build it. We managed without it. We had the hydro building for a while.

Service level was reduced by the failure to build.

It cannot be included again in the next  DC calculation.

I  therefore do not accept the advice of the CFO that  cost of the  joint  facility can be  financed  from DC s  calculated for the five years ahead.

That  gate has  already clanged  shut behind us.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Debt financing is not acceptable if our taxes & service charges are already too high. And I do not want to hear Councillor Thompson compare us to Mississauga. We do not have the same infrastructure or demands.

Anonymous said...

Debt financing is one of the reasons how the crisis happened in 2008. It’s also how the Region is in $2.2 +Billion in debt to which the S&P may downgrade their credit rating. And what will the cost be to maintain such a building? Has that been factored in at all?

Anonymous said...

Can someone post the recorded vote. I understand it was 4 councillors yes and 4 no with the Mayor breaking the tie.

I am sure Abel was a yea and Buck a nay. I would like to have clarity on the how the remainder voted.

Anonymous said...

A lame duck council has no business tying the hands of councils to come with split decisions or bad ones. They really have to back off and do some serious thinking. I think the attempt at that Heritage mess was the final straw for taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Why is the council lame duck in February / March? There is still a lot of opportunity to make progress.