Changes needed to fix tax inequity

LETTERS

In reference to Mayor Spearman’s article of Oct. 19, I would like to comment on some of the contents. He starts out stating, “Some residents have the impression that Lethbridge has higher taxes than other cities in Alberta and Canada.” What in the world would cause any resident of Lethbridge to have this impression?

Using tax calculations for each of the following cities, and using a uniform assessed value of $400,000, I found the following:

Lethbridge pays an astounding 74.7 per cent more property tax than Calgary. When you view this on a provincial scale, Lethbridge pays 74.7 per cent more than almost one-third of the people living in Alberta.

Lethbridge pays 19.6 per cent more than Medicine Hat and Red Deer, and 27.9 per cent more than Edmonton.

Calgary has an abnormally high commercial density, in relationship to the rest of the cities in the province, which creates an insurmountable problem of inequality for the rest of the province. Prior to our last provincial election, one of the prime issues discussed was “All Albertans should be taxed at the same rate.” This issue has most certainly not come to volition. This unreasonable discrepancy is not going to be solved by Mayor Spearman, it should be attended to provincially, by a Property Tax Equalization Board.

While Mayor Spearman mentions that a shortage of commercial revenue contributes to the extra burden imposed on our residential taxpayers, he failed to mention what has caused us to be so far behind the cities mentioned above. There are many factors.

New residents who move into established areas of our city can utilize the benefits of a well-laid-out city, with an abundance of recreational opportunities, good transportation system, and well-developed shopping areas. And best of all, most of the facilities have been paid for by the existing residents. This situation requires an immediate change.

Facilities wear out in time and require improvements. New residents should be assessed a fee when they purchase an existing home, which should go into an improvement fund to pay for future facility improvements. This would help stabilize our taxes as well as create tax equality between residents.

As far as new areas, why are the existing residents paying for any of the costs associated with development? These costs should be completely borne by the developer or end user. Why are residents in east Lethbridge being taxed to assist in paying for facilities in west Lethbridge?

Bob Wilson

Lethbridge