Letter: Letter writer should check his facts, and his tax bill

Re: Letter “Holding the line on taxes may cost us,” which appeared in the Feb. 19 edition of Northern Life.

I respectfully request Tony Sottile to go back and check his facts, if not his 2015 tax bill.

Interim payments were usually equal to the last two payments from the previous year. The last two payments were included the tax increase for the current year. Not this year — the increases are already on the interim payments.

Guess what? My taxes are up 10 per cent for 2015 already.

Oh, I forgot that secret little deal the municipalities and the province made through MPAC. Starting in 2007, there’s five years of automatic assessment increases. In 2012, there was another five years of increases.

The average house price in Sudbury has gone from $117,000 to more than $245,000.

So I’m already up 10 per cent for 2015, plus what percentage for every other home owner in Sudbury? Now Mr. Sottile wants them to throw on another three per cent on top of everyone’s percentage increase.

How much money are we talking about, just from the tax increases on the new assessments? Windsor manages to survive on the MPAC assessment increases. Why can’t Sudbury?

Peter Browne
Sudbury