Don Peat, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Tory was keeping his promise by holding property taxes to around the rate of inflation. He said in an email that “voters across Toronto in every ward voted overwhelmingly in favour of that promise and gave the Mayor a mandate to continue his responsible approach to the City’s finances.

“Despite a tough budget year, the proposed budget includes no service cuts, makes additional investments in many areas — including transit, policing, housing, and libraries.”

Clayton, the economist, notes in the study released Thursday that Toronto faces growing challenges paying to replace aging infrastructure, including some century-old sewer pipes, to add new infrastructure and to pay for enhanced services triggered by the city’s growing population.

“It is often suggested that the senior governments should provide a share of their income tax or HST revenue to the City to fund these needs. However, it seems unlikely that this will happen in the foreseeable future,” Clayton writes.

“Rather, our approach is to explore whether higher municipal property taxes could be used to finance the infrastructure and services being demanded by city residents.”

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