Who is more likely to pay for an expanding city

Guest Blogger here;

So the Chamber of Commerce believes you and I should be the ones picking up more of the city's costs thru our property taxes. The slippery slope started some years ago when they got the city to reduce their share down to 1.75 to one over the last few years and now want them to move even more of the tax burden to the local home owner. If this process continues, as I am sure business wants, personal property tax rates will be equal or even favour business.

My sense is that most people would believe businesses should be paying more for being in a growing city with more personal wealth which means more purchase power and more profits for them. The homeowner doesn't have the same ability to adjust their income to cover rising costs as business does. Many homeowners are on fixed incomes and get no relief from these tax increases. This is ultimately the problem with the type of archaic tax system (value assessment) that we currently use to gather the tax dollars the city needs to operate. The fact this business group is lavishing bouquets on this council for all the improvements in the city, shows they will go to any extent to schmooze those that make these decisions. It was only a couple of years ago this group lambasted council about cost increases.

I agree the city needs to provide the infrastructure necessary for our city to grow, but when was the last time you or I received at 5 or even 10 year tax holiday for buying a new home? The city should be looking at how it reduces the tax load on all of us instead of just transferring their out of control spending onto which ever group of people they feel will hurt them least at the polls.