05-18-2023, 08:01 PM
(05-18-2023, 02:24 PM)taylortbb Wrote: The tax levy is only split by urban/rural, so the region has the same tax rate for all of the cities. From the region's perspective city boundaries don't exist, just like we don't track property tax revenue or expenditure by ward in the cities. So the question of how much Cambridge paid is difficult to answer, as there's a lot of different ways you could split it up, all of which could plausibly be called fair.
If you look just at ION, Cambridge paid the same per dollar of property value as Kitchener and Waterloo. But that neglects that property values are lower in Cambridge, is that something one should adjust for?
But there's also the transit budget as a whole. Cambridge has lower ridership, and therefore the bus service receives a higher taxpayer subsidy in Cambridge. But that's not charged just to Cambridge taxpayers, so you've got a double transfer effect of the lower fare box recovery in Cambridge, and the lower property values in Cambridge.
So, Cambridge paid "the same" as KW, but also benefits from being attached to KW. If Cambridge separated from the region it would have to either raise taxes or cut services.
No way of knowing for sure. BTW: how much does 'rural' WR contribute to their bus service (both Baden/New Hamburg and St. Jacobs/Elmira)? And right about Cambridge benefiting from the over transit service. What sucks about Cambridge is that it is still 3 smaller cities fighting with each other, it's still not Cambridge. It's Galt, Hespeler and Preston (and Blair...). The city is bless by being on the 401, but damn, they can't get along with each other in town, let alone the region.