By Hamutal Dotan

   At the Planning and Growth Management Committee meeting this afternoon at City Hall, councillors voted to appeal a recent court decision that gutted the new tax on billboards in Toronto, which council passed a little over a year ago. The billboard industry called the tax’s legality into question; the court’s response was to uphold the legitimacy of the tax, but restrict its application to new billboards only: all legal billboards installed prior to the tax coming into effect (in April 2010) were deemed exempt. The effect of the ruling is to render the new tax largely toothless, and to dramatically reduce the revenue that will be coming into City coffers from the tax. PGM’s decision will be considered at the next meeting of the full city council, on April 12–13.