Are they afraid to tax ‘major industry’??

Some of us are aware that PG companies got $millions$ in federal green monies from Ottawa…to go along with the massive cuts in corporate taxes provided by Ottawa and Victoria.

Time to recapture some of the federal and provincial governments largess….just segregate the funds for infrastructure improvements…..like fixing potholes.

“Are they afraid to tax ‘major industry’?? “

Their rate per $1000 assessed value appears to be the highest already.

Why not up the residential rates and earmark that money for potholes? Those are the people who use the roads the most.

“Why not up the residential rates and earmark that money for potholes? Those are the people who use the roads the most.”

That apparently was done before but the money isn’t going to where it should. Taxes keep going up year after year for what? Snow removal sucks, the roads are a mess, and I thought that garbage can should be paid off by now. The problem is the money is miss managed. They spend like a teenager with a new credit card. Time to take the credit card away and spend within their means.

Residential may be the largest % of traffic but heavy industrial traffic is likely the largest % of impact on the road surface.

At 18 years of age I started out in life with nothing, now I’m 68 years of age. I only have half of that left. I’d like to leave something for my children.

“Residential may be the largest % of traffic but heavy industrial traffic is likely the largest % of impact on the road surface.”

Heavy industrial traffic doesn’t tend to occur on most city streets though? The highway is in pretty good shape compared to our residential streets and it gets a lot more heavy traffic.

“Heavy industrial traffic doesn’t tend to occur on most city streets though?”

It sure does. Just travel around in any residential area of this town and you will find it being used as a heavy truck parking lot.

The city of PG has a bylaw that allows heavy trucks to be driven into and parked for up to 3 hours at a time. There are a whole pile of them doing just that along with the ones that park overnight against the bylaw.

So tell me who is doing more damage to our taxpayer funded streets. The taxpayer or industry?

“So tell me who is doing more damage to our taxpayer funded streets. The taxpayer or industry?”

Sounds like a resident (taxpayer) who happens to drive a large truck.

I don’t have the numbers (where’s gus when you need him? :)) but I suspect that the number of heavy trucks consistently using residential streets is very small.

…where’s gus? Probably sitting on a bar stool at the end of the bar wearing a posties uniform. :)

When you consider corporate taxes went from 15% to 10% and many are taking advantage of power smart capital equipment infusions our city can recapture some of this largess through property taxes!! Good corporate citizens could handle a hit to fix up the city!!

Just look at the brighter side. An increase of 3.95% is better than an increase of 4%.

What happened to the promised 10% cut from our new mayor? A 4% hike is a long ways from that, now broken campaign promise.

You can’t take mill rates by themselves to compare cities as assessments must also be factored in. A better way to compare is to look at the ratio between classes. It is interesting to see how much each class pays for our city services and even more interesting when you compare ratios between classes for us and Kamloops.

Residential to Business Class
Prince George – 2.1 times residential
Kamloops – 3.2 times residential

Residential to Light Industry
Prince George – 3.2 times residential
Kamloops – 4.5 times residential

Residential to Major Industry
Prince George – 6 times residential
Kamloops – 11 times residential

It appears we pay higher taxes on our homes so we can keep industry and business from paying the same share as they do in Kamloops.

Call me stupid but what in the heck are your numbers comparing Mich 2 ?? doo good 3.95% is better than 4%. I can do one better… 4% is better than 5%… Give us a tax cut. Start at 10% they could you know if they don’t borrow money for frivolus stuff that we don’t need and spend on the required work that’s needed. We need a leader not a little teeen aged girl that daddy gave a new checkbook to.

Let’s see if I have this right,
on a 200 000 Dollar House it’s about 1600 plus School Taxes plus Water and Sewer plus Garbage pickup, have I missed anything ?
This Place is not for me, can’t pay for it

Your house assessment value means nothing in terms of what taxes you pay, it’s just a yardstick the city uses to set the mill rate. The city costs what it costs to operate, regardless of your home’s assessed value.

If the average cost of a home here was one million dollars, the mill rate would be adjusted down accordingly so you would still pay the $1600. It is surprising how many people don’t get that.

The relatively low cost of housing is supposed to encourage people to want to locate here. At least that’s what city promoters try to tell us.

Surefire. Setting the tax rates is not about deciding how much things are going to cost but rather who is paying the bill. The budget is already set and now Council is deciding who pays more (or less) of that bill, homeowners or business or industry.

Simply put, over the last decade in Prince George homeowners pay much more of the bill than is the case for the residential class in Kamloops (and most other cities) where business and industry pay more of the share of the bill.

As an example, in Quesnel house taxes are low in comparison because industry in that city pays more of the bill.

Assessment times Mill Rate = how much you Pay, the House with the lower Assessment on your Street will pay the lower Taxes! People to get get it, more Money every Year same Income.

Assessment times Mill Rate = how much you Pay, the House with the lower Assessment on your Street will pay the lower Taxes! People to get get it, more Money every Year same Income.

Harbinger:
That was bloody hilarious,
filiguster will not be impressed.

In addition to School Taxes and House taxes you pay

Road Rehabilitation Tax $54.16
SnowControlCost Reserve $91.10
2015 Cda Winter Games $23.65 (Till 2015)

Minus the so called Home Owners Grant which is a slight of hand, returning your own money back to you on paper.

Here we go again. Another 4% increase. How soon they forget after the November election. Will they vote themselves another increase on council? Will Green be another one time mayor? It does appear so. So may promises filled with empty words.