{"id":32080,"date":"2022-10-21T17:34:33","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T21:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32080"},"modified":"2022-10-27T22:08:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T02:08:10","slug":"mayoral-candidates-tackle-taxes-inflation-at-all-candidates-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mayoral-candidates-tackle-taxes-inflation-at-all-candidates-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayoral candidates tackle taxes, inflation at all-candidates meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Candidates vying to be elected Aurora\u2019s mayor for 2022-2026 in this Monday\u2019s municipal election had the chance to sound off on taxes and inflation at a recent all-candidates meeting hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking before a virtual audience of local business leaders, candidates Phiona Durrant, Anna Lozyk Romeo and Tom Mrakas were asked whether, in light of inflation, they would commit to an increased tax threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First to answer the question was Lozyk Romeo who said a commitment couldn\u2019t be made without looking at the 2023 Budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the responsible answer will be that when I see the Budget and we see [what\u2019s on it] we will make the decision then,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be fiscally responsible. We have Aurora Town Square that will be going live\u2026 with an operating budget\u2026.so we will have tax pressures. I can\u2019t promise anything, but I will make sure it is low, make sure that we\u2019re fiscally responsible, make sure we\u2019re also fiscally transparent and we\u2019ll see that at Budget 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In answering the question, incumbent Mrakas said he was going to \u201cstay the course\u201d and highlighted the tax record of the outgoing 2018-2022 Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the lowest four-year tax rate in over 20 years,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to stay that course. We have [had] strong financial management of your tax dollars [and] we have done that through the Finance Advisory Committee and we\u2019re going to continue that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to look for efficiencies all the time and that is what our job is. I have always said, and I maintain, that our job is to ensure that we provide the services that our residents and our businesses need at the lowest price possible and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to continue to do. We have done a tremendous job to date and we\u2019re going to continue to do that job. Aurora is the eighth-lowest taxes in the entire GTHA and so we\u2019re going to continue on that path and look at continuing to lower that so we can be in the Top 5.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding next was Durrant who said community is \u201cnot something that is built every four years\u201d but every day based on \u201cbasic shared values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen elected, you\u2019re really looking to [have] a financial audit in our system and looking to our budget,\u201d she said. \u201cCOVID has taught us\u2026 that for us to be economically strong we have to have a chance where everyone is succeeding\u2026. The commitment is I am for the people. If we\u2019re doing things that do not benefit the people then it shouldn\u2019t be done. When elected, I am looking to consult with the community, consult with the staff, consult with elected Council and look at what the Budget is and where we need to make adjustments that are serving our community so they can eat healthy meals. That is lacking in our community to not be able to afford food based on the cost of living in Aurora. That is my commitment to make sure that nothing is missed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on the previous question, the next one posed by Aurora Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Sandra Ferri said, \u201cfurther to the need to possibly raise taxes, what additional revenue streams would you be prepared to introduce and\/or support?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area of common ground shared by Mrakas and Lozyk Romeo was the possibility of additional revenues that would be raised by a Regional tax on vacant homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[That] will also help with making sure our properties don\u2019t remain vacant,\u201d said Mrakas. \u201cThat is an additional revenue stream, as well as the AMPS program, a monetary penalty system\u2026. But the Province also needs to afford all municipalities the tools that they provided for Toronto [and] we\u2019re working with the Province to look at upping what is provided for us as other smaller communities, especially small urban GTHA municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have advocated at AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) for a long time [for] municipalities to receive at least 1 per cent of sales tax or the GST from the Province and the Feds and that would solve a lot of issues from a revenue stream perspective and would allow us to keep our property taxes low and continue to bring in revenue. The only [way] municipalities have to bring revenue stream in is user fees or property taxes. We\u2019re going to advocate and work hard with the Province, with the Premier, with the Minister of Municipal Affairs to ensure that we can put proper funding in place and continue to grow our revenue streams.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lozyk Romeo agreed that the vacant homes tax was a good one and said that she\u2019s knocked on \u201ca lot\u201d of doors to vacant homes during the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there could be a benefit to the community and hopefully we can clean up those issues with a vacant homes [tax],\u201d she said. \u201cBringing up big business, that is another good revenue stream: I think we have a good example from what is happening [at] the Highway 404 corner that Smart Centres brought the dealership and a few retailers and storage\u2026 I believe there is $2 million in extra revenue for the tax. It is not just about bringing additional revenue streams, it is also reducing spending and I think maybe that is the area we should be looking at also because that\u2019s something that maybe we look at in the next term.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An additional focus, said Durrant, should be \u201cuplifting\u201d the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is great to bring new revenue streams but how are we lifting up the businesses who are floored and on their faces right now?\u201d she asked. \u201cHow are we helping them getting revenue into their families? Small businesses are having to pay property taxes, leases, and their mortgages. How are we helping them? Have we looked into our own finances as a Town and see what we need to cut back and where we can make adjustments there?… The businesses that are not getting any support in Town and how can we uplift them? That\u2019s what my focus is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can we uplift the mothers, fathers, and parents who are trying to add value to their community but there are no resources for them to help them maintain and keep their door open? How can we make sure that in a pandemic we\u2019re helping businesses who are new and open in getting tickets because of COVID regulations? There is so much we can do for business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Candidates vying to be elected Aurora\u2019s mayor for 2022-2026 in this Monday\u2019s municipal election had the chance to sound off on taxes and inflation at a recent all-candidates meeting hosted by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce. Speaking before a virtual audience of local business leaders, candidates Phiona Durrant, Anna Lozyk Romeo and Tom Mrakas were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8lq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 15:12:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}