Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, March 10, 2008
Mayor sees tax shift as 'doing the right thing'
Sullivan in favour of supporting move to trim business taxes while putting more burden on homeowners
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan says he will support shifting taxes from business to homeowners again this year even though it knows it will be unpopular at election time in November.
"But it's important to do the right thing. We know there is a lack of fairness in the tax system."
He will support a one-per-cent shift of business taxes, which translates to a two-per-cent increase for homeowners on top of the four-per-cent increase they are already likely to be facing once the budget is finalized.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan will once again support shifting taxes from businesses to homeowners this year.
Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie said his party will not be supporting the shift because the city's own fair-tax commission never came up with any solid evidence that a tax shift would have a positive impact for business.
As well, it will put even more of a burden on homeowners, who will have seen city taxes increase by 21 per cent over three years if the tax shift goes through.
Businesses have lobbied the city for years about their taxes, saying they pay a disproportionate amount compared to businesses in other cities across Canada. While other cities see their businesses pay three or four times the rate that homeowners do, in Vancouver it's been closer to five or six times.
There have been some shifts over the past several years to try to change that. A new business lobby called the Fair Tax Coalition was successful in getting the city to shift more in the past two years, as well as prompting the city to create a fair-tax commission.
Commissioner Stanley Hamilton did recommend five years of one-per-cent shifts a year. But, Louie says, Hamilton acknowledged there was no solid evidence that businesses were leaving the city because of high taxes. |
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