On April 29, I voted against shifting two per cent of the tax levy from business to Vancouver residential property owners. Although advertised as providing help to small, independent businesses, the shift actually provides tax breaks to all business properties, including large businesses like Walmart, Amazon and banks. I don’t think these guys need a break. They are owned by some of the richest people in the world.
It’s baffling to me that Non-Partisan Association councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Lisa Dominato and Rebecca Bligh and Green councillors Adriane Carr, Pete Fry and Michael Wiebe voted for this. Many of them campaigned on keeping residential taxes down, but this decision means that homeowners’ property taxes for 2019 will jump to 6.1 per cent on average from 4.5 per cent.
Another problem is that our neighbouring cities and the province may well view this as a slap in the face. Indeed, Vancouver needs to keep working with others to develop a progressive property tax system on businesses and residential properties. That is, it would be great if we could tax a $400,000 condo at one low rate, a $5-million house at a higher rate and $10-million mansions at an even higher rate.
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