06-17-2020, 10:02 PM
(06-17-2020, 06:58 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(06-17-2020, 04:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Well, I'd like to see a re-allocation of money. But apparently there are some reasons why property taxes are not a particularly progressive way to fund services, and the cities are not permitted to levy any other form of taxes apparently.
From the perspective of the federal and provincial governments, giving money in this way is a way for the federal and provincial governments to exert "soft" influence on what cities do...
Yeah. That's the Municipal Act. Additionally it restricts the cities as far as structuring the tax rates, with fixed property classes (Assessment Act!) and, as far as my legal reading can comprehend, no ability to use progressive tax rates on properties. One possibility might be to use property rebates to achieve that, but it's not clear what restrictions apply to those.
Ironically, according to one regional council delegation, the reverse actually appears to be true, where because of rules dating from MPAC's introduction, apartment buildings dating to the pre-MPAC era (many more affordable buildings), are actually taxed at double the tax rate of every other building in the city...
Yeah, who knew!