05-16-2023, 11:14 AM
(05-16-2023, 10:53 AM)bravado Wrote: I don’t see why developers should be paying to provide public services. This indirectly means that new residents will be paying in the end.
If our tax dollars don’t adequately support building new parks, then raise the taxes. Why can’t we do what previous generations did and build things? Why do future residents have to subsidize existing ones?*
* because our budgets are strained from past mistakes, so we keep making new ones to cover up the gaps
Because the municipal tax rate is permanently the #1 concern of those running for council. Raising tax more vs. burdening newcomers (or more likely renters under those owners) who can't currently vote against you and won't see the direct causal relationship is an easy choice with those incentives.
Your argument for fairness isn't wrong, its just unlikely to ever be that people's altruism exceeds their pocketbook defence.