Ford’s exec votes to kill car tax

Executive Committee approves canceling vehicle tax
It still needs council approval, and could cost city $64 mil
Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Dec. 10)

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday agrees with canceling the personal vehicle tax.

Mayor Rob Ford is one step closer to fulfilling his campaign promise to cancel the vehicle registration tax.
“The war on the car stops today,” Ford told the media on Dec. 1. “We will eliminate the $60 car registration tax at the first council meeting in December to take effect on Jan. 1, 2011.”
Ford’s hand-picked executive committee voted to kill the tax at its first meeting on Dec. 9, but that decision comes at a cost of $64 million: $48 million in lost revenue and $16 million to issue refunds to people who paid for their 2011 car registration in advance.
City staff also costed out an option to cancel the tax on Sept. 1 which would cost $48 million in lost revenue but not require refunds.
Ford has announced he can forgo this revenue and still produce a flat-lined 2011 budget, with no property tax increases and no major service cuts. City manager Joseph Pennachetti said his staff will try and achieve those goals, but there’s no details at this stage on how that will be achieved.

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Surplus social housing sell off

Toronto social housing sold to Wigwamen
City sells 20 properties to affordable housing provider
By Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier May 14.)

Toronto Community Housing is giving affordable housing agencies first dibs on properties for sale, including 5 Hubbard Blvd. across from Kew Beach. Photo by Kris Scheuer/Town Crier.

The city’s largest social housing landlord has begun the process of selling surplus Beach homes worth millions for a fraction of their market value.
On May 12, city council voted to sell 20 properties across the city with a combined market value of $8.6 million for $395,156 to the non-profit Aboriginal housing provider Wigwamen.
The Toronto Community Housing properties include single-family homes on Pape, Malvern and Golfview avenues, and Milverton Boulevard.
That selling price is the remaining mortgages on the homes.
The process is actually cost-effective, says a city councillor.
Normally, if the city sells or demolishes any social housing units in its stock, it is mandated to replace them within the same community. In this case, the units were sold to an agency that will maintain the properties as social housing, so the city’s not required to replace the housing.
“This is cost neutral,” explained Councillor Paula Fletcher, who sits on the TCH board.
If the city had sold the properties for $8.6 million to a developer, for instance, the city would have spent about the same to build 20 replacement units. According to a city staff report, it would have cost $6.1 million, plus the cost of land for replacement units.
It’s a good deal, said Jeffery Ferrier, spokesperson for the city’s housing agency, because a sale and replacement scenario would have been a money-losing proposition for Toronto Community Housing.  “You can’t just look at the market value. You have to consider costs to replace the units with better housing. The costs of (real estate) commissions, construction, demolition and land would cost more.”