Dear Editor:
Re: When is enough enough?, Letters, The Record, March 6.
I completely agree with the content of Mr. Eady's letter regarding the 2.9 per cent tax increase, and I would like to take his point one step further.
Property values in the Lower Mainland have skyrocketed over the past decade.
While they are forecast to dip slightly, even in my area of Connaught Heights, which isn't known for stratospheric property values, forecasters were recently expecting some homes to sell for over a million dollars - homes that were half that assessed value 13 years ago.
As property taxes are based on assessed property values, municipalities have been like pigs at the trough. On top of rising tax levels due to rising real estate prices, they are also increasing the actual percentage rate of those taxes at the same time.
What would these councillors do if there was a serious real estate correction? Double property taxes to make up for the lost income? Triple them? Increase the tax load on ratepayers who are stuck underwater on their mortgages?
It is understandable that in order to run a first-class city that revenues will need to be raised. However, there has got to be some level of fiscal discipline.
The B.C. Real Estate Association forecasts that property values will fall by one per cent during 2013 and then bounce back marginally by 0.4 per cent during 2014, indicating the years of rapidly rising real estate asset values are over, and a sideways market makes the possibility of an unexpected sharp correction very real.
Kris Taylor, New Westminster
