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Expressway
Costs
A
report presented to Hamilton City Council earlier this month
(July, 2002) provides dramatic evidence of why Hamilton’s
property taxes are so high.
It
shows conclusively that existing taxpayers are heavily subsidizing
new sprawl development. The report baldly admits that Hamilton’s
development charges on new homes are "well below those
in surrounding municipalities." Just how much below
is detailed in an appendix to the report which compares
the total charges on new residential development for 10
municipalities.
These
charges are supposed to cover the public costs of providing
services to these new homes, such as roads, sewers, water,
parks, libraries and other hard services, as well as police
and ambulance and other ‘soft’ services. The development
charges in the old City of Hamilton are $6,977.00 per home.
They are slightly lower in Glanbrook, and in the range of
$8300 (Ancaster) to $9,400 (Stoney Creek) in other parts
of the new city.
Compare
these rates with our neighbours: Burlington $13,765; Oakville
$13,499; Halton Hills $14,635; Mississauga $15,141; Brampton
$16,232; Markham $20,485; Milton $21,875. How can Hamilton
afford to charge less than half as much as Burlington for
providing the same services, and less than a third as much
as Markham? Only by forcing existing taxpayers to pick up
the difference! This shows that every new home built in
Hamilton is costing existing taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Recall
also that Hamilton is the only community in this list that
is trying to pay for a new expressway. The number one reason
given for building the Red Hill Creek Expressway is to service
new growth (in upper Stoney Creek and the west Mountain),
but our City Council plans to cover less than 6% of the
cost through development charges (and if past practice continues,
even this piddling amount won’t actually be collected).
These
two gross examples of financial mismanagement (absurdly
low development charges and extravagant spending on local
expressways) illustrate why Hamilton is in such a financial
mess, and is not likely to get out of it anytime soon. They
also show that the majority of our local "representatives"
are putting the financial interests of well-heeled developers
well ahead of local taxpayers.
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