Too many organizations with their hands out. You can’t accommodate them all.

Was trolling the Internet about PG and came across the list of people, places and things who do not pay taxes in this town. Flabbergast city!

Could a third party mutually agreedto by the city and the proponents do a search of each proponent to see if cuts could be made. If no cuts can be made the third party has the option of deleting how many proponentsmeet the requirement.

“…the requests for tax exemptions have increased by 10% over the past three years and are now exceeding the allowable limit.”

And therein lies the problem. These organizations all want Joe and Jane taxpayer to foot the bill.

The information about the organizations that receive tax exemptions is freely available on the city website.

http://princegeorge.ca/cityservices/finance/Documents/Annual%20Report%20%20June12_2012.pdf

The top three for 2011 were:

PG Golf/Curling Club $143,606.19
FFG Museum Society $97,368.01
PG Art Gallery $97,644.20

Respectively, to cover the difference, they will have to come up with:(based on 2011)
$4308.18
$2921.04
$2929.32

Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of potential revenue is lost because the city is the largest landowner in the core.

Why even put a law in place that caps exemptions at 1.5% if as soon as it is exceeded grants are rubber stamped?

In 2012 permissive tax exemptions did not exceed 1.50%. The City is anticipating that in 2013 exemptions ‘might’ exceed the cap.

The cap of permissive tax exemptions at 1.50% of the annual municipal tax levy as described in Sustainable Finance Policy 9.0 is being misapplied. The only rational interpretation of the policy is that the cap applies to that year’s tax rates and assessment values; i.e. the 2013 permissive tax exemptions should not exceed 1.50% of the 2013 municipal tax levy. To use different years makes no sense whatsoever; you might as coherently argue that the 2013 exemptions should not exceed 1.5% of the 1916 tax levy.

I realize that the City and Council have a timing problem because the permissive tax exemption bylaws need to be in place now, but the City budget and municipal tax rates will not be set for months. If permissive tax exemptions had exceeded 1.50% in 2012, and the City then launched consultative sessions with the organizations affected to explain the unpleasant but necessary reality, then it would still damage the community, but at least their position would be logically consistent and intellectually defensible. Their timing problem is not a reason to launch a pre-emptive strike on charitable organizations and the voluntary sector.

Maybe it is time for all these groups to justify the money they receive and show that they are a benefit to the local community.

An example is the blanket exemption for churches. There is one whose main purpose seems to be knocking on doors and shoving pamphlets in your face, have not heard of any charity work such as a soup kitchen. Should the taxpayers be subsidizing this recruitment effort?

Another church has recently been exposed for having ties to organized crime and money laundering. Local money involved?

Actually, a lot of churches have in-house programs for people who are in need. Thye are usually not advertised and step up as needed for their people, but they do exist. People who are church members get a lot of help that the rest of us rarely hear about.

I am not a church member, by the way.

Many of these organizations provide essential services that should be provided by government..i”m talkinga bout social services agencies. They provide physical rehab about accidents or disease, medical equipment, conselling so people can get back on their feet or back to work, etc. All of these thigns should be part of our medical and social systems because they are part of a holistic medical care system. So for these groups, a tax exemption simply helps them manage on the very low budgets tehy are alloted.

I’m less sympathetic to some of the other groups listed in the link.

Thanks for that link lonesome sparrow. I downloaded it and was immediately struck by Mayor Green’s message on page 3, where she describes the “many successes in 2011 that will serve as the platform from which we can continue to promote and grow our City”. They were:

– The 2015 Canada Winter Games Society established an office and began to assemble the team of staff and volun- teers that will prepare our community to host this national event.
– We hosted a successful World Baseball Challenge in July of 2011.
– We held three neighbourhood town hall meetings with Mayor and Council and saw tremendous community interest in partnering with the City to im- prove our neighborhoods.
– The innovative Downtown Incentives Program, including a Revitalization Tax Exemption Program, came into full swing and is seeing great uptake.
– We gave sober second thought to how we tax light industry in the City as we see the Air Logistics Park near completion.
– Crime in the downtown was significantly reduced as a result of the Downtown Partnership’s efforts to continue initiatives such as the RCMP’s Down- town Enforcement Unit and the Downtown Clean Team.
– CN Centre hosted the sold out KISS concert.

I hope the rest of the report isn’t as embarrassing for the City as page 3 was, LOL.

So can someone tell me why the PG Golf and Curling club gets a $143K exemption? Is this the result of some sweetheart deal struck in the past… or?

I am always mindful that the non profit world provides community based programs and services that result in a net social & overall community service gain, often to the more at risk, disadvantaged or taxed people in our city.

I am also disgusted that it is too often the first place governments go to swing the axe.

That being said, I do think that any non profit receiving this tax exemption must demonstrate: financial need, sustainability, they must be open and accessible to a broad number of people and/or fill a demonstrated need in our community and be able to document how their programs or services benefit the community directly.

such a paltry amount goes to funding so many worthy organizations and by far that funding is leveraged with volunteer investment, shrewd money management and the spin offs in community benefit. There is no profit margin as a goal. I agree with sarahsmith regarding churches. There are alot of lonely and lost people out there….

Like a broken record…there would be/is enough money to fund the organizations that meet the criteria, with this tax exemption, if it was not wasted on mega-retard projects & “want” projects that have been funded so readily. We all know what they are. i.e. trip to China and upwards from there.

NMG, sadly, I agree.