The Toronto media is rightly on the case of Joe Cimino. He is the NDP MPP who has quit his seat after just five months. Not only are taxpayers on the hook for the cost of a $500,000 by-election, but we were outraged to learn that Mr. Cimino was eligible for a $58,000 severance package too. After intense media scrutiny, Mr. Cimino has announced that he won't accept the severance package.
This story has a Newmarket parallel.
On the front page of the Era, the local media is absolutely gushing with anticipation that Regional Councillor John Taylor will be successful in seeking the vacant York Region Chair.
If he's successful, here is what the tab looks like Newmarket tax payers.
1) Severance pay. Mr. Taylor will collect a severance package equal to approximately 1 year's worth of salary from Newmarket tax payers for quitting his current job. He was sworn in to office on Monday and potentially could resign his seat after 11 days. One year's salary for less than two-week's worth of work.
2) By-election costs. It is estimated that a town-wide by-election for the vacated Regional Councillor seat will cost us approximately $250,000.
3) Regional Chair's Salary. Bill Fisch made an annual salary with plenty of perks that approached a quarter million dollars.
So the final bill for taxpayers if John Taylor is elected to the position of Regional Chair is somewhere in the range of $700,000.
It is an unacceptably large sum of money for you and your neighbours to fork over to help feed John Taylor's insatiable personal ambition.
It is too bad that John Taylor wasn't up front with us during his recent re-election campaign about his ambitions and the associated costs that he expects us to pay. He wasn't honest with us because it may have resulted in a very different outcome at the polls.
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