Residential tax is far too high

Dear Editor: The roughly 21 per cent approval rating that the mayor and city council received in the scientific Oraclepoll commissioned by the Penticton Herald undoubtedly comes from the business community.

The business community, particularly hotels, restaurants, wineries, and tourism operators benefit from the copious tax dollars that the City has been spending for some time to promote their business enterprises. This is by way of spending vast quantities of tax dollars in promoting tourism and economic development, and the creation of economic development zones to subsidize new business start-ups.

While the businesses benefit from this spending, more and more of the tax burden is being shifted to the residential taxpayer through ongoing adjustments to the tax multiplier.

The tax multiplier determines the split of the over-all tax burden between businesses and residents and is currently more favourable to business in Penticton than that in any other Okanagan community.

The magnitude of that tax advantage continues to grow annually. City officials continue to extol the benefits of job creation and increase in the tax base from these policies, but a fairer split of the additional costs involved is required.

What is needed in the next election is candidates for mayor and council that will take the interests of the residential taxpayer into consideration.

A platform of a fairer distribution of the tax load between business owners and residents should be well received by the voting majority. Claude Bergman Penticton