Tag Archives: Public Transit

Let’s fix property tax system to protect tax payers

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As thousands of communities across Canada set local budgets for another year, they’re facing the same national challenge:

How to provide the core services our families, businesses and economy need for today and tomorrow, while protecting local taxpayers still recovering from a global recession.

To get there, our communities need an ongoing partnership with federal, provincial, and territorial governments.

Municipalities simply don’t have the tools to do the job on their own.

As chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and Ottawa’s own independent Competition Review Panel have all concluded, Canada’s municipal funding system is unfair, inadequate, and needs long-term reform.

Municipalities collect just eight cents of every tax dollar paid in Canada, with 42 cents going to the provinces and territories, and the other 50 cents going to the federal government.

Despite this, municipalities build and repair more than half of Canada’s public infrastructure, pay the salaries of two out of every three police officers, and meet a growing list of social and environmental responsibilities, many downloaded by other governments.

Canadian municipalities depend overwhelmingly on the property tax, a ‘regressive’ tax that hits middle and lower-income Canadians especially hard.

To fund local needs – and support economic growth – municipalities are forced to rely more and more on those who can least afford to pay.

In many parts of the United States and Europe, municipalities receive a share of tax revenues created by economic growth, to reinvest in the roads, water systems and public transit that both workers and businesses count on.

In Canada, however, even when municipal property taxpayers invest in local projects, the tax revenues flow straight out of the community.

For every dollar a municipality invests in infrastructure, federal, provincial and territorial governments receive a combined 35 cents in new income and sales taxes.

Not a single cent is collected by the municipality itself.

In recent decades, federal and provincial downloading turned Canada’s property tax problems into a crisis.

Downloading is a back door tax hike, pure and simple.

It’s what happens when other governments balance their books by shifting unfunded responsibilities – for national policing, affordable housing, or environmental protection – on to municipalities.

It forces local governments to raise taxes, cut core services and delay infrastructure repairs.

In the 1990s Ottawa and the provinces relied on downloading to reduce their budget deficits.

Municipal finances were stretched to the breaking point. The municipal infrastructure deficit exploded to $123 billion.

In the last few years, all governments have worked together to repair some of the damage done to our communities and put the brakes on the infrastructure deficit.

Federal investments are not only creating jobs, but helping build communities that can meet the needs of working families and growing businesses for many years to come.

As governments work to balance their books during the next few years, they must continue working together to protect recent gains in our cities and communities.

As the budget outlook improves, they must be ready with a long-term strategy to ease the burden on property tax payers and build the infrastructure, transportation networks, and quality of life Canada will need to compete in a tough, post-recession world.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1367939

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Tax system needs change

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The Ontario Government is introducing the biggest and most comprehensive tax reform package in decades.
Tax reductions and harmonizing the sales tax are part of a total tax reform package, which, over the next three years, would include $10.6 billion in tax relief for Ontario citizens and $4.5 billion in tax relief for business.
All Ontario taxpayers would see a 16.5% cut in the tax rate on their first $36,848 of taxable income. That is the lowest rate of any province in Canada, and would affect 93% of Ontario taxpayers.
Every low-and middle-income person (including children) will be provided with a permanent annual $260 sales tax credit and the Ontario Property Tax Credit would provide an additional $270 million in property tax relief to tenants and owners.
The proposed HST would not affect items you currently pay both GST and PST on, nor will it affect the following exempt items:
– Basic groceries — Prescription drugs — Municipal public transit — Health and education services — Legal aid
– Most financial services — Auto insurance — Residential rents — Condo fees — Resale homes
– New homes under $400,000 — Child care
– Children’s diapers, clothing and footwear — Children’s car seats and car booster seats — Feminine hygiene products — Books
The proposed harmonization will require federal legislation to levy the provincial portion of the HST which must be voted upon by federal MPs. The federal government has encouraged the provinces to harmonize taxes for some time. As an incentive, Ontario has negotiated $4.3 billion from the federal government to help ease the transition. This money will be passed on to individual Ontarians. Single people earning under $80,000 per year will receive $300, while couples and families earning under $160,000 will receive $1,000.
In order to spend an additional $1,000 on the provincial portion of the HST, one would have to spend $12,500 on items or services on which you currently pay just GST.
Ontario is the business and manufacturing centre of the country, so, naturally, we stand to gain the most by encouraging new investment and increasing competition. When Ontario emerges from this global recession, the world’s economy will be fundamentally different; Ontario must be ready to compete. We cannot attract investment and jobs in the 21st century with a tax system from the 1960s, which is currently in place in Ontario.
We will provide business with input tax credits to effectively eliminate the provincial sales tax that is currently paid through each step of production; from the purchasing of raw materials to shipping, wholesalers and distributors. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the world that exports 80% of what we make, yet taxes the inputs needed to make these goods. Removing the many layers of embedded taxes will decrease the price of goods.
As a responsible government, during this time of serious economic recession, we have engaged in fundamental tax reform. A vital feature is moving to a single sales tax which is integral to ensure Ontario has a strong future by attracting investment and maintaining competitiveness.
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2125923

The Ontario Government is introducing the biggest and most comprehensive tax reform package in decades.

Tax reductions and harmonizing the sales tax are part of a total tax reform package, which, over the next three years, would include $10.6 billion in tax relief for Ontario citizens and $4.5 billion in tax relief for business.

All Ontario taxpayers would see a 16.5% cut in the tax rate on their first $36,848 of taxable income. That is the lowest rate of any province in Canada, and would affect 93% of Ontario taxpayers.

Every low-and middle-income person (including children) will be provided with a permanent annual $260 sales tax credit and the Ontario Property Tax Credit would provide an additional $270 million in property tax relief to tenants and owners.

The proposed HST would not affect items you currently pay both GST and PST on, nor will it affect the following exempt items:

– Basic groceries — Prescription drugs — Municipal public transit — Health and education services — Legal aid

– Most financial services — Auto insurance — Residential rents — Condo fees — Resale homes

– New homes under $400,000 — Child care

– Children’s diapers, clothing and footwear — Children’s car seats and car booster seats — Feminine hygiene products — Books

The proposed harmonization will require federal legislation to levy the provincial portion of the HST which must be voted upon by federal MPs. The federal government has encouraged the provinces to harmonize taxes for some time. As an incentive, Ontario has negotiated $4.3 billion from the federal government to help ease the transition. This money will be passed on to individual Ontarians. Single people earning under $80,000 per year will receive $300, while couples and families earning under $160,000 will receive $1,000.

In order to spend an additional $1,000 on the provincial portion of the HST, one would have to spend $12,500 on items or services on which you currently pay just GST.

Ontario is the business and manufacturing centre of the country, so, naturally, we stand to gain the most by encouraging new investment and increasing competition. When Ontario emerges from this global recession, the world’s economy will be fundamentally different; Ontario must be ready to compete. We cannot attract investment and jobs in the 21st century with a tax system from the 1960s, which is currently in place in Ontario.

We will provide business with input tax credits to effectively eliminate the provincial sales tax that is currently paid through each step of production; from the purchasing of raw materials to shipping, wholesalers and distributors. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the world that exports 80% of what we make, yet taxes the inputs needed to make these goods. Removing the many layers of embedded taxes will decrease the price of goods.

As a responsible government, during this time of serious economic recession, we have engaged in fundamental tax reform. A vital feature is moving to a single sales tax which is integral to ensure Ontario has a strong future by attracting investment and maintaining competitiveness.

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2125923

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