Comment 33587

By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted September 15, 2009 at 19:49:58

Jason >> well that was fun while it lasted.

It's funny that most of you lefties are in favour of higher gas taxes, because you know that this will reduce the amount of gas people consume. Yet when it comes to Hamilton real estate, something you want to see an increased demand for, you also choose high tax rates. What gives?

If we know that high tax rates reduce demand and low tax rates increase demand, doesn't it make sense to lower tax rates on residential properties?

I would love if someone could answer this question... how does charging almost twice as much in taxes (than Toronto) per dollar of real estate make Hamilton a good place to invest? Furthermore, what would be wrong with setting up a pilot project to see if lower tax rates could increase demand for Hamilton real estate?

It's not as if high tax rates have made Hamilton into a rip roaring success, while there IS evidence to suggest that Toronto has benefited from low tax rates.

A person interested in finding out the truth should be open to testing out new ways of doing things, therefore I ask you, what would be wrong with creating a small area of downtown with very low residential tax rates? If this led to increased assessments, we could roll it out city-wide. If it didn't work, we could cross it off the list. If science is based on testing theories, how is this any different?

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