Dear Editor:
Re: North Vancouver Mayors Push for Property Tax Reform, June 17 news story.
How are the property taxes calculated anyway? Most importantly, is the calculation based on a fair system? Currently, it’s based on a complex formula that involves the property value.
Instead of charging taxes based on the property value, the taxes should be charged based on the number of occupants in the house. Each person living in the house contributes to: water usage, garbage disposal size, sewer usage, solid waste, recycling, road usage, school usage, TransLink use, etc.
How is it that owners of houses that accommodate more people – thus disposing more garbage, consuming more water, flushing more toilets, driving more cars that pollute the environment and damage roads subsequently needing more maintenance and repairs, using more buses with TransLink – pay fewer taxes than a single living senior?
My two next-door neighbours own 11 cars between them and have rental suites.
The value of the house itself has nothing to do with what the municipality needs.
Your article states: “District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton agrees there is more the province could do to help asset-rich, cash-poor owners with their tax bills.”
Cash-poor? A colleague of mine owns eight condos that he rents out. He is really cash-poor, it’s all tied up in the investments. Should we lower his taxes?
Your article states: “But Walton said he’s not sure charging a lower tax rate to single-family home owners is the right approach to take.” Answer: yes, it is the right approach. It’s a fairer system.
Multiple family homeowners should pay more as they produce more garbage, more recycling, more solid waste, consume more water, pollute more air, drive on more roads, and use more schools and TransLink buses.
Gregoz Gawronski
North Vancouver
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