Municipal tax hike proposal troubling

Re: Article “Provincial cuts squeezing city budget,” which appeared in the Nov. 21 edition of Northern Life.

This week’s news that we are looking at around a three per cent tax hike is very troubling.

This city should be able to deliver all the necessities we could come to expect from a city of our population and have property taxes frozen at the current level.

Since 2006, home owner property tax bills have grown by 20 per cent or more if you consider the rise in property value. This isn’t even taking into consideration the additional revenue the city is receiving with the building of new residential and commercial construction.

The city has a number of bylaws that are strangling the growth and revenue stream that the city could be profiting from instead of raising our taxes.

We need a forward-looking council willing to take the necessary steps toward attracting new industries and cutting some of the overzealous, outdated bylaws that encourage urban sprawl.

This is a wonderful city, but unfortunately it has not tapped into its potential and the property owners are stuck paying the bill.

Aaron Beaudry
Greater Sudbury