Council recently passed the city’s 2013 budget with a tax hike of 5.27% – a rather low number compared to previous increases of about 8% last year and 9% in 2011.
Still, the GNCC says a 21% tax hike over a three year span is hurting Thorold’s ability to retain businesses and more sharing of services with partnering municipalities would help mitigate the escalating cost of services.
“Whether you’re a small business on Front Street or a large business like Abitibi, those kind of increases year over year make Thorold a less business-attractive place for investment,” Sendzik said, adding municipalities across Ontario are under increasing pressures to keep tax increases at the rate of inflation or lower.
Property owners cannot afford to continue to pay the escalating costs associated with city services and, in the chamber's opinion, itʼs the responsibility of city managers and councillors to find ways to reduce costs.
“In today’s economy, city council’s need to push staff to develop partnerships with other municipalities to cost share on services,” Sendzik said. “That’s one way to start reducing your overall expenses moving forward, so explore those partnerships with more vigor that you have in the past, because the affordability of running a city is not going to get any easier.”
Thorold Mayor Ted Luciani says he and CAO Frank Fabiano have already been engaging in discussions with surrounding municipalities regarding shared services.
“That conversation is going on right now, so we’re hoping something will come of it,” he said. “Anytime you can do something that might shave a point or two off of your operating budget without cutting jobs, you absolutely want to consider it.”
He said the municipalities they’ve already met with include St. Catharines, Welland, Niagara Falls and Pelham. Although nothing official has come out of the meetings, he’s hopeful the conversations will lead to some partnerships down the road.
“We had talks in many different areas and I think you’re going to see a lot more shared services coming out throughout the region over the next year or two,” Luciani said, adding snow removal, road construction projects and equipment purchases are some of the areas that have been discussed.
“I’m a big proponent for sharing services, but it has to be a win for both municipalities – it can’t be one-sided.”
Some Thorold residents and business owners have voiced concerns that sharing services with other cities could lead to amalgamation, though both Sendzik and Luciani agree that would not be the case.
“We’ve been buying transit from St. Catharines since 1948; has that lead to Thorold being amalgamated? We’ve been doing stuff like that for years, so I don’t see it that way at all,” Luciani said.
From the chamber’s standpoint, Sendzik says it views municipal partnerships as an opportunity to keep costs low and prevent the need for merging municipalities in the future.
“If you go into partnerships with area municipalities, it’s shows you’re willing to partner – it doesn’t demonstrate amalgamation,” Sendzik said. “If we want to continue to keep our own identity as an independent community, we need to ensure we’re operating efficiently.
“If we don’t, then the people of Thorold have to be prepared for double-digit tax increases moving forward.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jeff Blay
Quelle/Source: St. Catharines Standard, 04.02.2013
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