Hear hear, I will second that.

This city has gone hard right with the regressive taxation on all levels.

We see a regressive taxation ideological bend at city hall in the push down of the tax load from heavy industrial to home owners, we see it in hefty raises in user fees, and we see it in the increased utilities fee structure.

In the last few years heavy industrial like the refinery and pulp mill have seen their tax rate drop nearly 2%, and light industrial and utilities tax rate drop nearly 6%… meanwhile who pays for these tax cuts, its the homeowner (pensioners, working poor, and fixed income types) at 3-4% a year increase in home owner property taxes.

We see it in the selling of local park land and multi digit increases across the board in all levels of recreation and sporting venue user fees… the move to a more regressive user pay model marginalizing access to civic participation.

We see it in the closing of transfer stations and the implimentation of a fee to dump ones garbage at the land fill.

We see it in the flat tax $1000 a year utility bill, most of which was at one time included in the progressive property tax. So the two bedroom working poor house now subsidizes the 6-bedroom mansions and major industry that avoids paying its social license.

We see it with the Hart Highlands Local Area Service tax of $1600 (open contract yet to be determined) a year for specific home owners over 20-years for the sewer upgrade… on top of the property taxes and utility bill from the city… and yet at the same time the city creates a rain water run off tax for homes with no city rain water run off infrastructure; so that the city can raise the tax dollars to subsidize major industry along river road with a $12 million dollar dyke and not have to answer to home owners through an Alternate Approval Process, as the funds would no long be borrowed. Regressive hypocrisy at its taxation finest… home owners pay for their own infrastructure upgrades up front on their taxes, and major industry gets the public subsidy paid for again by home owners for the corporate infrastructure wants.

We have IPG paid for by city home owners going about doing recruiting and marketing for the corporate inner club as a lobbyist for generating all these regressive taxation policies on the city tax dollars to subsidize things like downtown property owners to have tax holidays, and get the lions share of municipal investments for area improvement.

PG has become a city of homeowners held hostage by city hall bent on regressive taxation policies that subsidize the corporate elite first and foremost, and allow the city to become run down while they pile on the user fees, utility fees, taxes, and service cuts to the segment of the city that can least afford it.

And it would be one thing if all these regressive taxation policies like utility bills, user fees, LAS payable taxes, and park sales resulted in at least a freeze on home owner taxes, but at 3-4% increases every year despite the shuffling of the tax burden… it just becomes down right ridiculous the regressive shift in the tax load.

PG needs a property tax freeze on any increases and needs to re-look some of these corrupt regressive taxation policies like the rain water tax especially.

IMHO

I don’t disagree with Eagleone, but there is another side to the debate.

We presently charge industry 450% more than residents for the same assessed value. Eagleone says that this is regressive, but it is a progressive tax in the extreme.

One risk with charging too much is that industry starts up in other communities or outside City limits. I think we are at the point that any further increases to industry may mean that we actually collect less tax from industry…

In at least one community in BC, industry has been successful in arguing in court that the tax structure is not fair and that they did not have to pay the property taxes. The concern is that Prince George’s mill rates are not that different.

A second risk with charging too much to industry is that we end up losing in court–and we start to lose our progressive tax.

Gotta pay for our over bloated civil service somehow….

We need to hold the line on taxes, and get a handle on City spending. In fact we need an audit of the City of Prince George by the new Provincial Governments Municipal auditing section that they just set up,.

Prince George likes to be first in everything they do, perhaps we should be the **first** to get an audit.

I don’t believe that we have the people in place at the City to effectively look after our money. It seems like they do everything in a willy nilly fashion, and as a result everything costs much more than it should. Too many decisions made behind closed doors.

I also believe that the wrath that was intended for Mayor Green will now shift to Stolz and Wilbur because as Ben pointed out they were staunch supporters of her policies.

That’s a fair point Icicle. But it depends on ones perspective… is a corporation a person, a family, and is that what fairness in running a taxation system boils down to? Do corporations operate in a silo of isolation?

Another perspective is in the breakdown of a dollar, and the things that are not even accounted for with a dollar such as pollution.

Every dollar of earned revenue in an economy has a hidden cost allocation for the infrastructure and services in a society that enabled the conditions for that dollar to be earned… an educated work force, the rule of law and a justice system, a health care system, public roads and bridges… all the things corporations undermine (to discard responsibility) through temporary foreign worker programs, international transnational treaties, private health care, and toll roads.

Is it right for a regressive taxation advocate to say they only share a cost allocation to society for the first say $20,000 of earnings, and that the rest of their earnings somehow no longer incur any debt to the society or economy that the earnings were realized in? Then with a limit to their liability it then redistributes the costs for over the limit earnings to those under the limit, thereby increasing the cost allocation distribution in a regressive manor… in the extreme making a system unable to work not unlike our provincial education system today.

Major industry earns a lot of revenue. This revenue has cost allocations relating to provincial infrastructure like highways and schools and hospitals, and it has federal cost allocations as well like national defence, and to a city it has the consideration of a service center to enable its enterprise and employees. If not for the major industry paying for the cost allocation of its revenue or revenue potential, then this cost allocation gets redistributed to those not making those kinds of earnings… and fairness gets called into question.

The other part of this is not so much a cost allocation for revenue earned, so much as its a natural resource or pollution subsidy in that a refinery like Husky has a pollution cost to the city. A pollution cost that is not factored into a balance sheet. Should Husky have the same tax rate as a school or home owner in light of its subsidized pollution of the airshed, and its large earnings potential to soak up dollars in the community that are much needed to absorb real cost allocation needed to run the city? Fairness would say they pay a higher rate than the average property owner.

What is fair can be judged by historical practice in tax rates, and by the historical perspective major industry has never had it so good… despite what all their well paid lawyers lobbyists will argue.

I think if the city taxed major industry at historical levels and invested that into a city everyone could appreciate no matter their income level, then this would reduce the regressive taxation pressure and would induce more people to consider PG a place to live whether it be for business or retirement… and the increase in population would be the best way to build a sustainable city.

Sounds like Zurowski might make a run at mayor again.

Eagleone you forgot the PAC.

“One risk with charging too much is that industry starts up in other communities or outside City limits. I think we are at the point that any further increases to industry may mean that we actually collect less tax from industry…”

Would be happy if a certain one moved out of our
air shed… It would be worth the loss of said tax dollars.

Keep paying what you’re told to and don’t complain!

http://globalnews.ca/news/976581/tax-dodge/

Cirque du Soleil needs our help.

Eagleone, please do not lump all the River Rd industries as wanting the dyke. I know one large River Rd business that was making sure that everyone signed the APP. It is the believe of a lot of people on River Rd and Pulp Mill Rd that the last flooding was caused by the City actions of trapping the water and preventing the flood water making its own channel back to the river.

Plus when the City built River Rd they put a system in that was to prevent flooding and it has not had a chance to prove itself.

There are people in top administration that need to go. What a mess…

It appears the city may have to write off the taxes and interest costs for the Fort George Museum.

Someone at city hall made a mistake for the 2014 permissive tax exemptions for non profits. The city now will need to ask the province for permission to write off the unpaid property taxes.

They probably will not look at the option of a grant to the museum as that would cost more than $84,000 as they already pay about $54,580.

Council was too gutless to implement any major changes from the Core Review (which might have been unpopular), so we are instead stuck with paying more.

Get ready to dig deep, we are just getting started.