A last-ditch attempt to bring down the city’s property tax increase from 3.5 per cent to three per cent was voted down.
Coun. Marianne Alto proposed a $250,000 cut to the police budget and $200,000 to the Beacon Hill Transportation Plan and Pedestrian Master Plan.
Only Coun. Ben Isitt supported the motion.
The city must approve its 2012 budget in the coming weeks.
“A reduction of this magnitude is completely doable in the time we have left,” said Alto, calling it “horrifying” that council had no appetite to bring down the tax increase.
The tax ratio has yet to be set, determining how businesses and homeowners will share the added burden.
In 2011, council approved a 3.96-per-cent tax increase, however the residential sector took the brunt of the increase. While businesses saw their taxes rise by one per cent, homeowners took a seven-per-cent increase.
