January 26, 2010 – Following a debate today, Halifax Regional Council’s Committee of the Whole voted 13 to 10 against a motion to continue to explore... Full Article
Halifax Regional Municipality Community Relations & Cultural Affairs
January 26, 2010 – Following a debate today, Halifax Regional Council’s Committee of the Whole voted 13 to 10 against a motion to continue to explore moving off the current assessment-based property tax system.
In late 2006, Council selected a group of citizens and councillors from across HRM to form a Tax Reform Committee to consult with the public and return with recommendations for an alternate municipal tax system.
The Committee proposed a Draft Tax Model in March 2008 – a service based tax that included low and middle income tax relief. Following a second set of consultations, amendments were made to include the introduction of a surtax on high value homes and Council was presented with a revised model in June 2009.
In September 2009 Council dissolved the Tax Reform Committee and assumed its responsibilities. In June and September, Committee of the Whole debated a recommendation that originated with the Tax Reform Committee. Council suspended its debate on the motion and agreed to participate in tax information workshops, two full days of which were held in November 2009.
Links to the staff report and tax reform background information can be found at www.halifax.ca by following a link from the home page.
This is a real shame, especially for the residents of Fall River who seem to receive a small percentage of the services other areas receive for less tax.
Where we are we have no water, no septic, no transport, little road maintenance (apart from in winter, and no complaints about that-they are fab!), a minimal police presence, a volunteer-based fire department and soon we will be responsible for the running of the Rec Center.
I have no qualms about paying tax-it is necessary. But give us a break! There should be some kind of tax relief for qualified properties who do not benefit from 2 or more services-they could still base the initial amount on property value. Be inventive HRM-have a look at models that are being used in other areas of Canada and get with the times!
If the tax reform being proposed at HRM had gone through most of us in our district would have seen our property taxes double. Thankfully the Dartmouth councillors and a few others understood how the Halifax based councillors and staff were trying to stick it to the rest of us outside the city core.
Obviously we don’t get what we seem to pay for now. However, the solution was not to raise our taxes even higher to benefit those in Halifax that already have all the services. HRM does not have a revenue issue but an expense issue. Until hiring and spending are brought under control we will all be disatisfied with the service we receive from our municipality for the money we pay.
The status quo taxation structure has major equity problems but it is far better than what was being proposed.
Oh yes- I didn’t realize that they were planning a surtax on high value homes. I agree Steve, the fairest way to tax is based on services, not on income. Higher incomes already pay more tax and get less benefits and reliefs. I thought they were just ‘exploring’ options at this stage, but I was wrong.