Bruce Turner submission
Aug 18, 2008
10:00 – 12:00
My Name is Bruce Turner and I am a trustee of the Gorham Local Roads
Board and chair of the East Gorham LSB. We are generally pleased that this
Ministry has finally decided to part with the information regarding PLT reform.
However the promised additional information that was to be forthcoming prior to
today has apparently been lost in the mail. Before I get into any detail I
would like to get something off my chest. The manner in which this has been handled
and the secrecy surrounding the process has caused great concern to many of our
property owners. It has been handled in an arrogant and disgraceful manner and
those responsible should at the very least
be fired.
We are generally grateful that there does not appear to be any
significant increases to the current PLT, the regular and interim PLT combined,
YET. However once again you seemed have dropped the ball and failed to listen
to the points raised during the 2004 rounds of consultations regarding a fair
and equitable tax. The difference between the two residential rates of .0004
and .0023 or 6 times the amount is considered to be anything but fair and
equitable. The original interim PLT placed the tax burden on only those within
school boundaries regardless of what services they receive compared to those
outside the boundaries. You have property owners 50 miles away from a
municipality paying both education and PLT for a total of approximately $500.00
/ 100,000 of assessment and someone else only 8 miles outside the municipality
paying only $40.00 for the same
assessment. All that appears to have happened is that you took out the word
interim. The same could and will happen to next-door neighbours at township boundaries.
The townships closer to municipalities are also where most of the LSB’s
are located. The property owners in these areas pay additional taxes to provide
their own fire protection, recreation, waste removal and possibly a variety of
other services.
We understand the system was a mess, unfair, outdated and required
updating. We are actually pleased to see that everyone will be using CVA as
this will also allow the LRB’s and LSB’s to use current assessments.
While people generally don’t like paying taxes, most recognize the need
for them and accept the taxes being levied, as long as it is done in a fair and
logical way. This implementation plan is neither fair or equitable. There was a
strong concern raised and recommendations made during the 2004 consultations
that the government get it right the first time. This certainly does not appear
to be happening. Another issue is the $6.00 minimum. There is no way that this
amount contributes anything towards the cost of providing services. In this day
and age it does not even cover the cost of preparing and mailing out the bills
and processing the payments.
It is becoming more obvious as this reform moves forward and all the
secrecy, that the government put very little effort into this reform and just
threw up their hands took the total assessment for the areas under Boards of
Education and divided it into the amount of money being collected. Lets just
get it implemented and most people won’t complain because it is less of an
increase than many anticipated. Once its in place we can sock it to them and
claim that we actually consulted and they had a chance to have their say.
Right.
In closing I would like to thank MPP Bill Morrow for his ongoing effort
to get answers and for his support.
There is still time to do this right. Stop, Listen and make the necessary
changes to make this fair and equitable. Do what is right and what we were
promised.
Thank you.
Bruce Turner