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By A Smith (anonymous) | Posted March 29, 2011 at 14:09:29 in reply to Comment 61736
>> there are a lot of reasons we can't have a Mississauga style tax rate.
If city wage gains had simply been kept inline with the Ontario wage gains from 2005-09, the tax savings to Hamilton taxpayers would have been $140.355M in 2009. The total tax levy in 2009, including for schools, was $827.030M. In the reduced wage model, taxes would only have been $686.675M.
The residential tax rate in 2009 was 1.54%. If we factor in the savings from decreased wage costs, this rate would have been lowered to 1.28%.
In other words, the ONLY reason why Hamilton's tax rates are 50% higher than Burlington and not 25% higher, is because city council rewarded city employees with lavish wage contracts, far exceeding the wage gains of average taxpayers.
In Portland, apparently quite a nice city with a strong economy and low taxes, city spending only increased by 23.6% from 2005-09. In Hamilton, city spending increased by 45.7%.
Explain to me why Portland can create a high quality city, while also watching spending, while Hamilton can't? Keep in mind that social service costs only went up by 25.5% in Hamilton during this time period.
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