City of Toronto launches tax-supported budgets for 2017

The 2017 Preliminary Tax Supported Operating Budget of $10.46 billion focuses on finding sustainable savings across City divisions and agencies while providing high quality, affordable services that respond to the needs of the city's communities.The 2017 Preliminary 10-Year Capital Budget and Plan is $26.5 billion, of which about 60 per cent is allocated to maintaining and investing in the City's state of good repair. The capital budget and plan continues to fund the City's two largest transit investments – the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension and the Scarborough Subway Extension. It also provides new funding for SmartTrack and Lower Don Flood Protection, and funds to match federal investments in transit infrastructure projects.The City strives to deliver high-quality services and to invest in infrastructure while keeping taxes low for businesses and residents. The budget outlook for 2017 continues to be challenging. The demand for public services is rising, especially in the areas of public safety, transit, housing and poverty reduction. As a result, the pressures on expenses are increasing faster than revenues. The City also has substantial capital needs for both new infrastructure and state of good repair. A significant portion of these capital projects remain unfunded.At the start of the budget process, the City was faced with an opening pressure of $731 million. Much of it is a result of the combination of agency pressures, Council-approved service levels, the deferral of capital projects from prior years and measures that were phased in from prior years, such as the loss of pooling compensation grants for housing, which continues to exert pressure in 2017.In addition to ongoing expense management, a number of balancing strategies have been applied to reduce the preliminary budget pressure to help keep the residential property tax increase at the rate of inflation. These measures include increased volume of Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT) revenue, uploading of social services and court security costs to the Province, and a TTC fare increase and ridership growth. Combined with savings, reductions and assessment growth, these strategies have lowered the overall pressure to $91 million.Toronto is currently updating its Long-Term Financial Plan, which will help the City to continue to manage its expenses, raise revenue and make the most of its assets.Both the 2017 Budget and the Long-Term Financial Plan provide opportunities for residents to help build the city they want to see. More information about how to get involved in the budget process is available at http://www.toronto.ca/budget and the Long-Term Financial Plan at http://www.investinginto.ca.Members of the public can share their views with the Budget Committee at the public presentations scheduled to take place on January 5, 9 and 10. More information about how to make a public deputation is available at http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis.More information about the City's budget and the budget process is available at http://www.toronto.ca/budget2017.