How Van Bynen Failed Us - Let me Count the Ways

I am writing this blog in response to questions from a reader, John Heckbert.  John’s asked for more details about why Mayor Van Bynen’s administration was taxing us so heavily during the past two terms that Van Bynen has served as Mayor of Newmarket.  The simplest answer is likely the right one:  high taxes are necessary because Tony Van Bynen has been inept managing the public purse. 

Here are reasons why Tony Van Bynen has been a lousy mayor with an exceedingly long record of fiscal mismanagement:

1)      Each year that he has been mayor, Tony Van Bynen has passed budgets that include tax increases well in excess of the rate of annual inflation.  The only time that the annual tax increase was reasonable in comparison to the CPI was when there was an election in that year.

2)      During this same period of time most other municipal governments, including York Region and the School Boards, showed constraint in their tax policies.

3)      The Federal and Provincial levels of government actually implemented income tax reductions during this same period of time to help the economy.

4)      According to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Tony Van Bynen’s administration grew the expense side of the Town’s budget by almost $40,000,000 or a whopping 44% while Tony Van Bynen served as Mayor.  During this time, the Town’s population has only grown by just 8%.

5)      Salaries and expenses grew by 31% and the number of people on the “Sunshine List” grew at a staggering rate

6)      The Maystar lawsuit caused the cost of building the Magna Centre to spiral out of control.

7)      The escalating costs of the Old Town Hall which now exceed $10,000,000 well beyond original estimates

8)      Sole sourced contracts were awarded when competitive bids should have been sought.

9)      Water conservation efforts had the opposite effect than what was intended causing the cost of managing the town’s water service to skyrocket

10)   Our town library has a CEO and a co-CEO which is ridiculous considering the small size of the library.  It should have a General Manager only.  I am certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are likely numerous examples where employees are given inflated job titles and salaries and/ or duplication exists. 

11)   Significant resources spent on the business area on Main St. with very little to show for it

12)   Mayor convincing council to take the Marianneville developer to the OMB at a cost that is outrageous considering the likelihood of success

13)   Use of consultants that provided very little benefit to taxpayers

14)   Decision to give $2.7 million bailout to the Newmarket Soccer Club with very little chance of repayment

15)   He is easily distracted from delivering the core services of the Town – such as garbage pick up or snow removal.  Recently we have seen garbage pile up while he is tweeting about donating blood, for example, which demonstrates he isn’t aware of what is going on around him.

16)   The amalgamation of the fire departments into Central York Fire Services has been extremely costly for taxpayers costing us millions more than the previous Newmarket Fire Dept cost.

17)   He failed to schedule responsible maintenance of town owned facilities which resulted in unscheduled closures and emergency repairs at the Youth Centre, the Seniors Centre, and Gorham Pool.

18)   During his tenure, a significant number of employers along Harry Walker Parkway and along Davis Drive have left Newmarket which results in a weakened tax base and puts greater burden on residential taxpayers. Newmarket now has a 7.7% unemployment rate where the national average is 7%.

19)   During his tenure he ensured that Council members got their salary increases and maintained various perks despite calls to roll back.

The fact remains that while our taxes are going up and up year after year, the bumbling and fumbling of the Tony Van Bynen administration continues. 

All of these incidents are reported and available on line.  Voters will need to be informed and to make up their own minds on Tony Van Bynen’s tenure to determine if he deserves another four year term. 

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to write this list.  In my opinion this should serve as a good reminder to my readers as to why Newmarket needs a new mayor. 

If I have missed anything from my list, I hope my readers will add via the comments section of my blog.  To be fair, I wanted to list what I felt were accomplishments of Tony Van Bynen that demonstrate skillful management of public funds.  Unfortunately, I could not list any.  If you can, please add it to the comment section as well. 

Hopefully, this will spark a good debate on whether Van Bynen deserves a third chance in October.