Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
It bothers me that an inflationary increase isnt always included in the discussion as it makes city politicians look bad compared to federal or provincial counterparts. If I get a 3% pay increase the feds increased their tax take by more than 3% by doing nothing. The city has to raise taxes by 2-3% just to break even.
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Must also account for population growth. Property tax is calculated from a revenue neutral position. So if population grows by 2.5% and Municipal inflation is 3.0% - property tax revenue must increase by 5.5% to break even. Also remember that property tax is only about 50% of the city's revenue and other sources, for example user fees, don't necessarily grow at the rate of inflation every year.
Tax reform needed. It's stupid the City must manually adjust the mill rate every year.
Did you know for example that the Province's personal and corporate income taxes rose by
20.5% between 2011/12 and 2012/13 - but you didn't see days of headlines about that. It's because the Province's tax system makes sense - it automatically grows with population and the economy - the City's doesn't.