The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

_. . wrrrenwoounonua~mwmmgou~r . \ a o o a a ' ‘ l I ' Mayoral candidates answer questions on important City 188% As part of the ongoing 2014 municipal election. the Waterloo Chronicle will pose weekly Waterloo and its residents over the next four-year term of council. questions to the four mayoral candidates. it will provide each candidate with the opportuni- Responses have only been edited for length and style. and appear in alphabetical order ty to craft an approximately ZOO-word response to questions on issues facing the City of below. Mayoral candidate! responses will be cycled through over the next fourweeks This week's question: The Municipal Price Index has been controversial in Waterloo in determining property tax rates. . , What’s your opinion of asmg itas a benchmark for setting municipal tax rates? 3?? Anyouruiayociwilluaefiacalrestraintwhencteatingthe WWWmhceyeuoveryear. Inibudgtthurneetstheneedsofourdnt Weneedtogakeehcdvemeofeverydoflarweluvenot 3;; Dave MiliethebudgetaryprooesstartswithaguidelinelikeMPi justmanagetheannuaiincreaae n;:Ӥ toanticipatethecostsofrunningamunicipniitytitisimportant MPlhastlnadvantagemerQIasitrepreaeuu'asplmltnot fl . Iaworsky to remember that it is only one of marry steps in creating and cw? . 3:929: stickingtoabudget. However,thecaiculationoftheMPlneedstobeweilcom- :: . Given that any guideline is going to have its strengths and municated forcornpletetnnsparency * weaknesses, the focus of my attention will be an open and flexi- I am open to examining the merits of the MP] as well as " hie budgeting process other benchmarks like the CPI to establish what works best for i This process must instill confidence in our citizens and our community. If you ask the average homeowner what the Municipal Price lire answer is that the taxes are based on the value of your _ hidexhnrostwmldnotkrwthenmwec homecoifyourauessedvalueinuensesbyfivepercent.your .. Dave Their main concern is what the tax bill is going to be. taxes will increase by five per cent even if the city does not . whether the city uses the MP1 or the CPI (Consumer Price human-stall MacDonald index). That is the reason i think the city must spend tax dollars ,. Mom of us are familiar with the inflation rate. and for the wisely and make sure that projecu are aflordabie. and that the ‘ ' 1'“ past few years. the city hasmanagedto keep the annualtax homeownerptathebectnhrebreverydoilarthatisspent. "3 increaaewithin thelnllation rate The city has no control over the assessed value of your Thenthequectionk'Mn’tyaremytaxesgoingupsomuchT homebutthedtyclnconuoillnvyourtudoilaraarespent. In using the Municipal Price index (MPi) the City of Waterloo served to find new methodaoflneome. allowing us to increase ‘ has been able to keep property tax increases around the rate spending without alldngpropertymnen for more money. 3 Rami of inflation. in doing thh it has kept the city accountable to To put it into perspective, prior to the MP! we had multiple . the taxpayers in controlling expenses such as salaries. hydro. years where our property tax incense. were in the double digâ€" ‘ Sald water and construction. in changing this method we risk its and as high as 17 per cent (let's not forget the RIM Park ' opening the flood gates and removing caps. fiasco). Since using MP! however, we have only increased Some arguments against this are we can provide better property taxes by6.8 per centover the past three year; service to the community by moving away from the MPi, as it Simply put. changing from the MN is not the solution. " will allow us to increase spending. To me that's not accounta- instead. we should work to find new ways to fund our projects hility. instead of changing from MP1 we would be better without relying on increased taxes. Waterloo's municipal tans are higt. In fact. they are oonsider- complexity. and excessive variables“ , ably higher than Toronto's Waterloo is the only Ontario Our high taxes and council's request for a retroactive Enka munidpalitythatrdieaaolelyonMPltosetitsbudgetMPiisoon- increaseofiflperoentshomsthispemepthnmbeweflbum- -' fusing and compliated. and allows council to histify its dedsiorts ed. Businesses consider two things when deciding where to ‘ 1-"an bysimplyrehmMPl, invest: the overall tax rate and the stability of tans. Waterloo MP1 was adopted in 2006 to provide certainty and stability. does poorly on both. ““ Yet the City has recently applied for a retroactive increase of 1.9 in my View the MP] is a failed experiment and we must get per cent to cover unanticipated costs rid of it as part of the process of regaining a competitive post Municipalities that rejected MPl cited the perception of MP! tion. keeping our residents. attracting new ones and keeping as a 'non-estabiished methodology. lacking of credibility. high and attracting private investm \ YOUR TOP AWARD WINNING SPA % ‘ ‘r a or ‘ W stesaanooo omnucon I I a GinnSpoAndHciv "I I“ "nun" m ’