In year one, Chow gave us a 9.5% property tax increase. In year two, 6.9% increase. The
CBC suggests the upcoming Feb 2026 budget will see lower increases, so, perhaps 5-6%?
I'm expecting less, but we shall see.
If that’s the case, we’ll see Mayor Chow increase property taxes by over 20% during her “first” term.
I think we really need to be fair here, to any mayor, the way the property tax system works there are no automatic increases for inflation.
So inflation runs 3% per year, for argument's sake, its around 9.5% after 3 years.
So the structural increase is really more like 10.5%
It can be argued that previous mayors starved the city, but we still need to ask, are we noticeably better off for Chow’s increases?
As noted by
@evandyk above.........
Services have improved, and more is to be expected.
This past summer, Libraries that traditionally closed on Sundays in July and August stayed open.
And
Outdoor pools added 2 hours per day to their base open hours.
This fall, we saw Library add Sunday service to every branch in the City and expand those hours from 1:30pm-5pm to 12:00pm-5pm.
Next year there will be a further modest increase in service ensuring every library in the City is open 7 days per week.
The TTC just added a fair bit of service on Line 2 in October
A lot of changes/increases are coming mid November, including significant increases in service for Line 1, and for two streetcar routes that will be committed to running every 6m service 7am-7pm, 7 days per week.
I am hopeful we will see Fare Capping at 40 rides for TTC in the upcoming budget as well.
If she wins a second term, I think we can assume an additional 20% increase over a full four year term.
If inflation runs 3% per year, then 13% is basically holding steady.
I think a structural increase of 7% more is unlikely in term 2, more like 4%.
The LTT is currently in the toilet, I expect that will come back a bit, and there will likely be another revenue source in there somewhere.
