Comment 52198

By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted November 25, 2010 at 01:37:50

Hammer >> the reason taxation is so high, is do to the high upkeep of infrastructure costs that Hamilton suffers from due to excessive sprawl

Then why doesn't that also apply to Oakville, Burlington, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Vaughan, etc. These communities have lower tax rates, less debt AND more sprawl. The REAL reason we have high tax rates is because we have too much government. Per capita wage costs in Hamilton increased to $1,248 from $899 in the 2009-05 time period, or 38.8%. In that same period of time, Ontario wages, not even accounting for extra population growth, increased by 16.9%.

How can we expect to have a robust private sector, with lots of competition and innovation, if we keep taking money out of it and giving it to public employees who work for monopolies? This isn't rocket science, it's just common sense. If you want a strong private sector, you can't give all the money to the government.

seancb >> you have not been reading any LRT evidence with an open mind of its potential to change the way we build this city.

Hamilton needs less open minds and more skepticism. We have a very long history of allowing government to spend our money and the result is almost always bad. It's up to the proponents of LRT to answer questions, such as these...

1) What are property owners waiting for? Every day that goes by that King/Main doesn't have LRT, they are losing out on guaranteed higher rental rates/capital gains. Isn't that illogical?

2) Why are we risking public funds when we don't need to? If the city will benefit from new tax revenue regardless of who funds LRT, doesn't it make sense to fund it through voluntary means, rather than taxation?

If the LRT case is as good as you say it is, these should be very easy to answer?

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