Mississauga councillors have voted to add an unprecedented 5 per cent surcharge to property taxes next year as the city tries to tackle an infrastructure crisis that could put the famously debt-free municipality in hock within five years.

The levy, to be imposed on top of a proposed 3.9 per cent hike in the city's share of property taxes, is expected to bring in about $12.5 million next year. It could make Mississauga the most heavily taxed city in the GTA. And it still won't be enough.

While the surcharge will add about $50 to the average residential tax bill, it falls far short of garnering the $75 million needed in each of the next 20 years to cover $1.5 billion in repairs and replacement of aging bridges, roads, and water and sewer systems.

In that respect, Mississauga's position is similar to Toronto's, where council last month voted to impose new taxes on land transfers and vehicle registrations to cope with a fiscal crisis after draining the city's reserves. Toronto has a $7 billion infrastructure deficit but is already heavily in debt. Water and sewer replacement alone will cost $2 billion.

More and more cities are facing a financial crunch as infrastructure neglect catches up with them, putting the task of extracting more federal funds at the top of the agenda at next week's meeting of big-city mayors in Oshawa.

Mayor Hazel McCallion plans to use the new surcharge as a launching pad for her own national campaign – dubbed Cities NOW! – to pressure Ottawa to use its huge surplus to help urban centres tackle the infrastructure mess.

"I am in a fighting mood," McCallion said after the vote was passed. "We are in a fighting mood."

She said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's mini-budget, which ignored urban needs in favour of cuts in the GST and income tax, left Mississauga with no choice but to impose a levy that could be collected annually for the next 20 years.

"It's a sham," McCallion said, slamming the tax cuts as a cynical attempt to gain re-election.

"Is the federal government going to wait for more bridges to fall down?" she said, citing the results of neglect in the recent collapses of bridges in Quebec and Minnesota.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates that municipalities that have borne the brunt of downloading of services and infrastructure costs face a deficit of almost $100 billion.

A key statistic in yesterday's Mississauga debate was the claim that in 1961 municipalities owned only 30 per cent of public infrastructure assets – and bore a similarly small percentage of the cost of maintenance and replacement. By 2005, that proportion had jumped to almost 60 per cent.

McCallion called Ottawa irresponsible for ignoring cities' long-term agenda and the importance of infrastructure to ongoing economic success.

She said Cities NOW! would target the federal government because only the country's largest tax collector could tackle such a huge crisis. The idea that Ottawa has no role to play in cities is outdated, she said.

Mississauga city manager Janice Baker, who initiated the surcharge and campaign, said the U.S. and Europe are far ahead of Canada in recognizing the needs of cities.

The next step in the campaign – which unlike Mayor David Miller's One Cent campaign is directly only at infrastructure needs – will be at the urban mayors' gathering next week, where Baker and McCallion will try to persuade other mayors to join the Mississauga initiative.

"We want to be front and centre" in the fight, Baker told councillors. "Mississauga has the reputation and the credibility to make this case."

Miller welcomed McCallion's campaign, saying he hoped it would make the federal government pay more attention. Flaherty has been dismissive of the Miller-led push to get Ottawa to give 1 cent of the GST, about $400 million a year, to cities.

"I don't think they can dismiss each city systematically," Miller said. "Mississauga has benefited from extraordinary growth, and even they are facing challenges that are unaffordable in their city without massive property tax hikes.

"So Minister Flaherty may try to marginalize Hazel McCallion. Good luck."

Miller said her campaign is complementary to his own, "because it's the same issue." He said he was supportive when McCallion last week outlined her plans to him.

"She said she wanted to take a strong stand, and she was going to do it in her budget, and I said, `Go to it, Hazel.' One of the things about Mississauga, it's an edge city, it's a suburb, it's been recently built. And if it can't meet the needs of its residents, it makes the case in a very clear way."

The Mississauga levy was passed within three days, without public input or debate. The idea surfaced publicly Monday, when Baker made a presentation to councillors titled "Federal Government's Priorities are Wrong."

Two days later, it was on the council agenda. With less than an hour's debate the special levy was passed.