road weary tax burden

Roads make up the largest part of the city’s infrastructure deficit of $195 million a year.

Taxpayers get to keep a whopping $27

City hall has whittled down this year’s projected 2.4 per cent residential tax hike to 1.6 per cent — or an extra $53 on the average homeowner’s tax bill.

“That’s the lowest tax increase since amalgamation,” city finance chief Rob Rossini told councillors Thursday afternoon. “We’ve identified an additional $6.4 million in budget reductions.”

The new budget numbers come in the face of council’s resolve to achieve a zero increase to the tax levy with no cuts to service levels.

“Are we finished? No. How close we get to zero remains to be seen,” Rossini said.

The overall projected residential tax hike includes a .6 per cent increase for city departments, .6 per cent for boards and agencies, and .5 per cent for capital projects.

The total 1.6 per cent tax hike represents the weighted average of a 1.7 per cent total municipal tax hike and a .7 per cent education tax hike. Municipal taxes make up 80 per cent of the total residential tax bill and education 20 per cent. The average assessed house in Hamilton is $240,000.

“I was concerned that we would do something extreme that would put us in a difficult position next year,” Mayor Bob Bratina said. “The key question was if these reductions are sustainable or are they something we have to come back and fix next year.”

The budget process has been rife with major impact items, including labour relations, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System issues, cost of living allowances, a 5 per cent increase in the police budget and infrastructure costs, Rossini said.

Unlike Councillor Lloyd Ferguson, who said he still has questions about the police budget’s 5 per cent increase, Bratina said he had complete confidence in Chief Glenn De Caire’s “analysis of the needs of his department and the city.”

The tax hike decrease includes an $83.6-million — .5 per cent — capital budget levy approved by the general issues committee Thursday. Staff had recommended a 1.5 per cent capital budget levy increase but had to find about $7.4 million in savings by parking some projects, deferring others, and killing some altogether.

Among the delayed and deferred projects are the Hamilton Culture and Protocol Centre at Auchmar Estate, an antismoking education and signage program for parks and recreation areas, public art, Battlefield Park’s War of 1812 site interpretation, and Hamilton’s east-end air monitoring pilot project.

“Council wanted to focus on hard infrastructure, particularly our local roads program, so we were able to accommodate an $8 million increase to our local roads, which are on a replacement cycle right now of over 100 years, which is crazy,” Rossini said.

Roads make up the largest part of the city’s infrastructure deficit of $195 million a year.

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/496070--taxpayers-get-to-keep-a-whopping-27

Burlington Roads Safer?

“I personally wouldn’t ride my bicycle on the streets of Burlington. I wouldn’t feel safe doing that,” he said.

Burlington roads becoming safer

Fairview & Maple The intersection of Fairview Street and Maple Avenue has the most accidents in Burlington.

Gary Yokoyama/The Hamilton Spectator

BURLINGTON Take a population of 173,000. Give it 1,595 kilometres of road to travel on. Add cars, cars and more cars. Then hold your breath, hoping no one gets hurt.

The good news? While Burlington’s population grew by 3,000 in 2009 and the number of kilometres of road in its jurisdiction increased by 28 kilometres, the number of reportable collisions dropped by 300 to 1,656. That still equates to 4.5 collisions per day.

Since 2005, the number of collisions on Burlington streets has decreased by 10.3 per cent (190 collisions).

Burlington roads are getting safer, suggests Chris Day, supervisor of traffic services. Day’s 2009 road safety assessment will be presented to city councillors Wednesday.

Day credited the triple E effect for the safer streets: engineering, enforcement and education.

And it’s not only collisions that are down. The number of personal injury collisions has decreased 6.4 per cent from 2005 to 2009. There were 295 such collisions in 2009 and one fatality. Injuries occurred in about 18 per cent of all crashes.

Of the 1,656 collisions in 2009, 46 involved pedestrians (2.8 per cent), 38 involved cyclists (2.3 per cent) and 31 involved impaired drivers (1.9 per cent).

Day’s report outlines the top 20 locations in the city that need improvements. The most accident-prone intersection in the city remains Fairview Street and Maple Avenue which has been plagued by rear-end collisions as drivers attempt to turn right onto Fairview from the northbound lanes on Maple Avenue.

“Fairview and Maple Avenue continues to be the top intersection for collisions in the city although we have seen the number of collisions there decrease over the last few years,” Day noted.

That intersection had 178 collisions from 2005 to 2009.

Burlington Councillor Paul Sharman, who has been critical of a Burlington Transit system that is shunned by 97 per cent of residents, wonders half-jokingly whether congested traffic has led to fewer accidents.

“I think that is true. I think we are going slower,” he said, adding a crackdown on impaired driving has likely played a role as well.

Sharman said Burlington is car-friendly. Not so much for cyclists.

“I personally wouldn’t ride my bicycle on the streets of Burlington. I wouldn’t feel safe doing that,” he said.

The top five intersections Day’s report has recommended for improvements are: Fairview/Maple; Fairview between Drury Lane and Guelph Line; Waterdown Road between Flatt Road and Ireson Road; Plains Road between Francis Road and King Road; and Corporate Drive/Mainway.

kpeters@thespec.com

905-526-3388

more roadwork: more tax increases

City wants more roadwork

City council wants to put more money towards updating Hamilton’s battered roads — and councillors are open to reallocating money from other departments to help pay for it.

Road and traffic infrastructure was top of mind for councillors yesterday as they discussed the city’s capital budget.

Staff are recommending a yearly hike of 1.5 per cent for three years and 1 per cent for another seven years to help cover the costs of updating infrastructure. That would add $42 to the tax bill of the average home in Hamilton in 2011 and $9.75 million to the total budget.

Councillors were on board with dedicating extra money to infrastructure, but weren’t prepared to add the 1.5 per cent on top of increases to the city’s operating budget — currently sitting at 3.6 per cent, not including any wage hikes for staff.

“I’m prepared to spend this money, but I’m also prepared to eliminate other expenditures,” said Councillor Sam Merulla.

Council voted yesterday to ask staff for a report detailing “options and alternatives to free up funds” to put towards improving the city’s infrastructure. Councillors will debate that plan on Jan. 21.

Rob Rossini, the city’s general manager of finance, told councillors that his department has already allocated $2.7 million out of the waste management budget to put towards road repair. If council votes for the 1.5 per cent infrastructure surcharge, that revenue will be over and above the $2.7 million from waste management.

The city’s roads are measured on a scale, called the overall condition index, from 1 to 100 — 100 being a perfect road and 0 being a road at the absolute end of its lifespan. The city’s average is 55.8, which is estimated to fall to 46.9 over 10 years. It would cost $640 million over the next decade to maintain the status quo and avoid that decline.

“We’re in a slide. We’re getting to a point where rehabilitation won’t be effective,” said Gerry Davis, the city’s general manager of public works. “Spending a dollar today on the rehabilitation … saves us spending the equivalent of $4 for a full reconstruction.”

Last year’s budget included a 0.5 per cent increase for capital projects, while 2009 contributed no hike to infrastructure.

ereilly@thespec.com

905-526-2452