Raise the Hammer

Ryan >> Burlington progressed a long way toward having a real, functioning downtown

The difference between Hamilton and Burlington's downtown is that people in Burlington have lower tax rates and they get to spend this extra money at local businesses. The architecture of Burlington is unremarkable, but it has been well maintained, while Hamilton's downtown has been left vacant and rotting.

Unfortunately, Ryan has spoken of higher taxes for the people of Hamilton and more money in the hands of the government for things like LRT. He is aiming to be like Boston of the seventies, when tax rates were over 2% and people left the city in droves, but at least they had lots or taxpayer subsidized rail transit.

Notice when he speaks of fixing this city he never mentions more money for average people, just more money for politicians...

"In particular, we need to get busy and convert our streets to two-way, widen sidewalks, plant lots of street trees, build a continuous network of bike routes, complete our LRT"

What do all of these things have in common? They all involve less money for Hamilton taxpayers to spend on what they want and more for politicians to spend.

The rest of the GTA communities enjoy residential tax rates 40-100% less than Hamilton and this money flows into their local businesses. If our local businesses had this extra money, we too would have a great downtown. Unfortunately, people like Ryan, Jason and your local councillors, feel the government knows better how to spend your money than you do.

They also don't care about poor people, because residential property taxes hit poor people much harder than rich people. All they care about is using your money to build what they desire, whether or not that means less for you and your family. Not very neighbourly.