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Nearly 10% property tax guideline: Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Pickering, Clarington taxpayers looking at massive hikes in 2024 regional budget

https://www.durhamregion.com/news/council/nearly-10-property-tax-guideline-ajax-whitby-oshawa-pickering-clarington-taxpayers-looking-at-massive-hikes/article_064c7d31-b8a3-5793-825e-37fc7ff66045.html

2024 Region of Durham property tax guideline highlights budget pressures hitting municipality but taxpayers will have to foot the bill.

Nearly 10% property tax guideline: Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Pickering, Clarington taxpayers looking at massive hikes in 2024 regional budget

Good knowing y'all.

8 comments

Showroom7561

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10% better get me a lot of value as a taxpayer, but it doesn't look like it.

Rather than have taxpayers flip the bill for things like homlessness support, housing, and an 8% increase in the DRPS budget, increase fines (for all things) by 10x and let rule-breakers cover the costs of these services.

ILikeBoobies

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It’s to cover the funding that Ford took away

Ideally it would give you the same coverage you have now

Showroom7561

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It’s to cover the funding that Ford took away

I hear you.

The Region reported that we will lose nearly $300 million over five years due to Ford's Bill 23.

Pickering already reported nearly $2 million lost because of it, and we're just getting started.

ILikeBoobies

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If you want something worse, Ford scrapped his ideas of listening to municipalities before breaking them up and is just going to have his committee decide

That’s going to raise costs massively for everyone effected. Who handles water for Durham if there is no Durham? Does everyone need new infrastructure to accommodate a new source?

PenguinTD

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You are assuming that people will still break rules at fixed pace after introduce a raise in fines, which is not how people(even corporates) would have responded.

You can't budget things on income that would change depending on how people behave themselves. It's like budget with income from pan handling.

Showroom7561

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You are assuming that people will still break rules at fixed pace after introduce a raise in fines, which is not how people(even corporates) would have responded.

Have you seen how fast automated traffic cams have paid for themselves? Speeding and red light infractions alone, at 10x the current fine, would cover at least funding for the homeless.

You can’t budget things on income that would change depending on how people behave themselves.

I agree, but people will always be breaking rules, and we are under-ticketing the majority of them.

I'm not saying that my model would eliminate taxes, but it would prevent or reverse these increases. 10% causes harm to a huge chunk of Durham Region families, so why not tap into this revenue?

Nobody is going to defend people breaking laws, so let them pay for stuff.

healthetank

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It's unfortunate that this is such a hike, but not entirely unexpected if you've been watching. The PC's changes drastically reduced funding for municipalities, leaving it up to them to sort out.

Beyond that, the costs to maintain infrastructure are enormous and most people don't realize the scope of them.

I'm working on designing a road rehabilitation in Richmond Hill (0.7% property tax)- new sanitary sewer, new watermain, new sidewalks, new curb, and new asphalt. Generally you're looking at this once in 50 years, with a second, smaller, revitalize at about the 25 year mark. This section of road is a residential area with about 100 houses. It's estimated to cost $8-12mil.

Over 100 residents at 0.7%, with an average house price of $1.8mil and you get ~1.3mil per year of income. Without including treatment plants, repair fixes, hydro, or any other facility construction, it would take 8-10 years of those residents entire property tax to pay for that work.

glandrid

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Wow, thanks for the write up and YIKES! It sounds like many Canadian's are in for either a rude awakening or the collapse of their municipal services.