Zero just doesn’t add up anymore.

That’s what Mayor Joe Fontana admitted Thursday as council finalized the 2013 budget and he abandoned after two years his key campaign promise: to deliver four straight tax freezes.

Instead, council approved a budget that includes a tax hike of about 1.2%, or $30 for the average London homeowner.

Acknowledging some taxpayers may be irked, Fontana called it a case of aiming for a goal and falling short.

“I don’t know (if people will feel) deceived. I’ve tried. But I’m also practical and realistic,” he told reporters. “The city . . . needs a lot more oxygen than I ever realized. I’ve tried.”

A Fontana-led council majority pushed through tax freezes in 2011 and ’12.

The appetite for another tax freeze wasn’t there for the nasty cuts required to do so this year, with politicians rejecting belt-tightening that would have hurt services such as libraries and London Transit.

Though the reins were pulled back on some spending — most notably, police and fire budgets — Fontana doesn’t sound like he’s interested in pushing for zero again in 2014.

The tax freeze is finished.

In its place, Fontana argued, should be a greater emphasis on economic prosperity and job creation, playing to his other key campaign promise: to create 10,000 jobs over five years.

“Can we still get to zero?” he said to council colleagues as debate began Thursday. “Sure, we could.

“But I guess the question is, should we? I believe at this time it’s not the time to go to zero. It’s time to pivot to job creation.”

Ditching a campaign promise that’s clearly proven unrealistic had Fontana predicting a nasty reaction — he expected critical headlines Friday morning, he said — and some quietly wonder if he simply no longer has the political support to push his agenda ahead.

But one frequent rival, Coun. Nancy Branscombe, gave him full marks for shifting gears. “He wanted to find a balance to get a unanimous vote,” she said.

In the end, the budget was approved 12-3, with Bud Polhill, Dale Henderson and Paul Van Meerbergen opposed.

The difference between the tenor of Thursday night’s final budget debate and the same night one year earlier was remarkable.

To fully grasp the dramatic drop in temperature in both the political and public realm, imagine walking out of a sauna and straight into a hockey rink.

The issue that so galled critics last year — diverting $1 million from affordable housing to deliver a tax freeze — was rejected this year. So, too, was a slew of other contentious cuts.

That left council entering Thursday with a 1.2% tax hike on the books, roughly $5.6 million in cuts or new revenue away from a tax freeze.

The needle hardly moved, though an additional $1.1 million was thrown atop the tax hike to help pay for economic-development projects. In response, Fontana pulled an equivalent amount from the 2012 surplus.

That kept the tab at 1.2%.

To call it a debate is misleading — the final budget session was calm and largely cordial, save for a few flare-ups.

When Coun. Matt Brown questioned using a surplus to bankroll the London & Middlesex Housing Corp.’s 2013 budget increase, Fontana was ticked.

He warned he’d resume his push to zero if his effort to find middle ground was met with a push to spend more. Branscombe replied she and others didn’t “appreciate the threat.”

A 1.2% tax hike adds $30 to the property tax bill of the average London home, assessed at $202,000.

patrick.maloney@sunmedia.ca

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