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Taxation Task Force No sooner was the ink dry on Council's resolution to invite Chris Hodgson to hold a referendum on de-amalgamation, than Mayor Truax announced the formation of the Municipal Taxation Task Force. The averaging of tax rates across the City has been the main cause of skyrocketing rural taxes and the off-setting decline in urban taxes, particularly Lindsay's. The time to have studied tax rates was a year and a half ago. Now, out of desperation, Mayor Truax is getting on the tax fairness bandwagon. Several months ago, Council passed a resolution to have staff look into the possibility of rural, urban and semi-urban tax rates. The staff report was to have come back to Council this November. Council's resolution has been ignored, and instead we are about to get a dog and pony show designed to bolster the "No" campaign in the upcoming de-amalgamation referendum. What assurance do we have that if the referendum vote is to stay as the City of Kawartha Lakes, Council doesn't immediately change its mind about tax fairness and return to one city-wide tax rate? After all, there were rural councillors who voted to start dismantling area-rating on the grounds that we are all "one big city" now. We predict that a three tax rate policy would collapse like a cheap tent in a high wind immediately after a vote to keep the City. Which is all the more reason to vote to restore Victoria County and the former municipalities.‡ Reprinted from The Red Rock Eye Opener |