Hall Marks with Emma Reilly

The language of love...and taxes

This morning's budget kickoff started with a bit of multicultural flair. At the beginning of the meeting, downtown Councillor Bob Bratina surprised everyone by welcoming a group of Chinese delegates in Mandarin. Bratina gave me this translation of his greeting: "Welcome to Chinese friends.  We Canadians appreciate the Chinese culture. Thank you very much."

After Bratina's linguistic manoeuvre, Mayor Fred Eisenberger asked Rob Rossini, the city's finance guru, if the budget was going to be presented in Chinese. That prompted Rossini to launch into the first few lines of his budget presentation in robust Italian. He got a big laugh from council, including Eisenberger.

"You make the budget sound so sexy," said the Mayor. "I'm getting a little hot under the collar."

I'm filing that comment away in the "too much information" pile.

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On a more serious note, the preliminary budget numbers were presented to council this morning. So far, they're better than expected - Hamilton's looking at a 3.1 per cent property tax increase. However, that amount assumes we're getting a $16.5 million contribution from the province. More details about the budget will be available in tomorrow's paper.

In the meantime, what's your reaction to these numbers?

Oskee-wee-What?

 

Sam Merulla broke some bad news to Hamilton residents this week. If you live within the old city's borders, you've been paying to upkeep Ivor Wynne Stadium since 2001. Your suburban neighbours haven't been charged a dime. By the end of this year, the old city will have paid $1.4 million into Ivor Wynne.

Sam Merulla brought this up during one of the city's area rating debates this week. He wants to make sure any taxpayer costs of the Pan Am stadium are shared by the entire city, unlike the current situation at Ivor Wynne. Leave it to council maverick Merulla to combine two of the hottest city issues -- area rating and Pan Am -- in one fell swoop.

So, Hall Marks readers, what do you think? Are you a ticked-off urban resident? Or are you a suburban resident worried that your taxes will skyrocket?

I hope you all enjoy your weekends...I'll be resting up and gathering my strength for the city's budget kickoff on Monday.  That's right, folks - it's officially budget season. Wish me luck.

The Area Rating Game

I wonder if any council members are suffering from deja vu today. Yesterday, they voted to delay any decision-making on the controversial area-rating issue until after next year's election. Read the full article here.

Council dealt with this exact issue last year -- but there seems to be a bit of confusion about what they actually voted on. Many councillors thought they voted to make a decision about area rating this council term and implement it in 2011. The next day's Spectator story and Andrew Dreschel's column seemed to be under that impression as well.

The thing is, the Mayor totally disagrees. His citizen jury shelves this issue until after next year's election, meaning council will be able to duck the heat on this hot-button issue come campaign season.

Yesterday, several councillors implied (or in the case of the ever-outspoken Sam Merulla, outright suggested) that the Mayor's playing politics on this one.

What do you guys think? Is area rating worth a year-long citizen jury process? Or is the timeline just too convenient?

Welcome back to Hall Marks!

Hello everyone,

My name is Emma Reilly, and I’ve been busy covering city hall since Nicole MacIntyre began her maternity leave in October. I can’t wait to get things going again at Hall Marks – once you start hanging around city hall, it doesn’t take too long to catch political fever and I’ve been dying to share everything I’ve seen so far.

Hall Marks will operate just as it did when Nicole was running the show – I’ll post as often as I can and keep you updated on what’s happening with city council. I know this goes without saying, but I’d also like to remind everyone to stay away from foul language or libel. I would hate to wind up in jail for posting a defamatory comment!

Please leave a comment and introduce yourselves – and don’t hesitate to tell me how you feel about the direction of the blog as things progress.

Here’s to a great year at city hall!
Emma