This year’s resolutions are light on ideas to save taxpayers money — but not on ways to claw more dollars out of people’s pockets. Duncan wants a cut of future marijuana taxes for cities. Sun Peaks wants an Airbnb tax. Williams Lake wants higher bylaw infraction fines. Penticton wants to tax vacant land at a higher rate than its zoning allows. And Terrace wants to do the same with brownfields. Langley City wants to split residential taxation into two classes so they can charge townhouse and condo owners more.
There are also dozens of motions that show councils still haven’t learned that there’s only one taxpayer. West Kelowna wants the Christy Clark government to waive the provincial sales tax on infrastructure projects. Sure, the city would save a few bucks, but taxpayers would be no further ahead, as the provincial treasury would be out that revenue. Someone always pays: the taxpayer.
In that same vein, Harrison Hot Springs wants infrastructure projects funded 50 per cent by the federal government, 40 per cent by the provincial government, and 10 per cent by municipalities — moving seven percentage points from the city’s share to the province. But whatever level of government the money comes from, it’s still out of taxpayers’ pockets.
Several corporate welfare programs are pitched — Lake Cowichan wants government to pay private business owners to improve their storefronts. Columbia-Shuswap wants a tax credit for people who invest in rural businesses, while Alberni-Clayoquot wants government to pay for farms to harvest rainwater.
http://theprovince.c...d-at-city-halls
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>