Comment 28521

By arienc (registered) | Posted February 07, 2009 at 22:33:13

A Smith...so what if the quality of life in Toronto is much higher than Hamilton, and they have more restaurants, etc. What does that have to do with taxes?

Does having a bigger house mean the police will arrive at your door faster? Does it mean they will take out more garbage? Does it mean you have better transit? Does it mean you can flush the toilet more, use more electricity, go to the library more?

Certainly the cost of things like road maintenance, sewage treatment, trash collection, connections to services all link more closely to square footage than to market value. Plus, lower density is less efficient to provide services to. And yes, people with larger homes generally do generate more garbage.

I understand your relentless desire for lowering taxes. However you neglect to understand that those tax dollars are used to maintain certain essential services. While these services can often be delivered more efficiently, the fact is we are significantly underspending on the things that matter, like maintaining our civic infrastructure in a state of good repair. If we can't even afford to maintain what we have with the tax rates we have now, imagine what the impact of lowering taxes will be.

"First they built the road, then they built the town. That's why we're still driving around and around, and all we see. Are kids in buses. Longing to be free." - Wasted Hours, The Arcade Fire

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