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The bus has arrived. And a majority of London City Council did not agree.
The third full day of political deliberations on City Hall’s first budget under the powerful new Mayor’s Bill will see several attempts to increase spending on a range of services, including Transport for London. The proposal was rejected, making it the toughest one ever.
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City Council members sat down Thursday to scrutinize the 2024-27 budget drafted by Mayor Josh Morgan, but by the end of the day the budget proposal still called for a review of the budget. Fixed asset tax increased by 8.6% This year, amidst many continued pressures to re-prioritize spending.
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county. David Ferreira’s bid to add more money to the Transport for London budget to create new hours for traditional transport (as opposed to paratransit) was defeated 8-7. Seven people supported putting more money into transit: Anna Hopkins, Ferreira, Hadley McAllister, Jerry Pribil, Schuyler Franke, Susan Stevenson, and Sam Trosseau. All others opposed the promotion.
“Right now, we have people passing by in overcrowded buses. They’re missing work, they’re missing school, they’re missing appointments,” Ferreira said.
Politicians agreed that Transport for London is underfunded, but their disagreements are over the size of the increase already included in the 2024-27 budget and the fare rises introduced this year. Ta. The mayor’s proposed budget requests $56.7 million from City Hall for transportation this year, up from $45.8 million in 2023.
“When it comes to the count. (Schuyler) Franke says this has been underfunded for decades, and I disagree. In fact, I said that in my City Government (speech), That’s why I support a significant increase in the base budget,” Morgan said.
Cutting room floor and good news
City politicians took little action Thursday. In addition to transportation, efforts at direct investment have largely failed even without tax increases.
Franke argued unsuccessfully on an 11-4 vote to take $300,000 from the police budget and invest it in snow removal and cleaning of the main street bike lanes, which have never been cleared. Morgan, Stevenson and Steve Lehman, who were appointed to the city council’s police commission, said London’s police force would receive the proposed $672 million in the mayor’s budget from 2024 to 2027, an average of $100 million a year. He insisted that the entire amount ($68 million) was needed.
This year, Trosseau’s motion to float $60,000 from reserves to Pillar Nonprofit for community leadership training also failed.
But a small amount of new spending was narrowly approved, totaling about $435,500 over four years to manage the city’s environmentally sensitive areas.
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What’s next?
Confusion erupted Thursday morning when Budget Chairwoman Elizabeth Perosa suggested that amendments to the mayor’s budget may not be allowed after the session. This surprised some of her colleagues in Congress, especially Trosseau. Call for increased funding for libraries.
They understood that Morgan had a 30-day timeline to propose budget changes. “(Library) staff is currently working on problem structuring to determine exactly what the (proposed budget changes) will consider. There are several other things we need to look into right now. ”Trousseau said.
In order to allow Congress time to consult with outside agencies on other budget amendments, but given the lack of amendments for Congress to consider, the full-day budget debate will be held for two more days, February 15th and February It is scheduled for the 22nd. .
The currently proposed 8.6% tax increase in 2024 would add $282 to the tax bill for the “average” homeowner in London – “average” being a home valued at $252,000. be. Politicians are technically debating the city’s budget for four years, which currently calls for tax increases of 8.6% in 2024, 8.7% in 2025, 5.6% in 2026, and 6.5% in 2027, an average of 7.4% per year. is required.
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