“I voted in favour of the budget, but I am still very concerned about the problems we have as a result of our bare-bones budgets that have been frozen in recent years. It’s about time we take stock and review certain things. One of them is the sharing of tax revenues between the City and the boroughs. It is no longer acceptable for all these revenues to go to Montréal while the boroughs get the bills,” asserted Me Dauphin.
An equalization formula
The Mayor of Lachine pointed out that the situation could be corrected by using an equalization formula combined with a development fund. In his view, there is no need to reinvent the wheel because it’s already embedded in the City Charter, in Article 85.4.
“The more we build the poorer we get, because in Lachine with the 3,000 or so new housing units that have appeared in the last 10 years, we are victims of our own success. Why? Because residential development leads to additional expenses for the boroughs in terms of local services such as street maintenance, snow removal and garbage collection. And this is all without adding to our revenues from taxes,” he pointed out.
''The more we build the poorer we get.'' - Claude Dauphin
“Win-win” solutions for City and boroughs
Me Dauphin reiterated before the assembled members of the municipal Council that he will continue to work with the central City to find “win-win” solutions for the City and the boroughs.
“I would like to mention that the Administration recently made a commitment in the medias with regard to borough financing in the 2013 budget. I therefore ask Mr. Tremblay and Mr. Applebaum to make a public commitment now before the assembled Council to remedy this budget imbalance during 2012,” concluded Me Dauphin who received the applause of the Councillors from the three political parties.
