Taxed Into Leaving: Is the CBRM Falling Backwards by a Century?

Joe Ward Follow Me

Posted this 2016-08-21 3:57 PM ADT (updated 2016-08-25 2:43 PM ADT)

In October's election, you're going to have a choice between two alternative tax plans.

Despite the CBRM paying the highest residential and commercial taxes in all of Nova Scotia (often by about 100% more), Cecil Clarke plans to keep those taxes the same.

Rankin MacSween will begin to turn things around with a responsible plan to reduce taxes by 2.5% per year. The video will explain the severity of our challenges and population decline:

Cecil Clarke's Plan: Keep taxes the same.
Rankin MacSween's Plan: Reduce taxes by 2.5% per year, phased in over four years.
We have the highest taxes in all of Nova Scotia.
If you pay $1,900 a year for your home in the CBRM, you would pay about $900 less in Antigonish for the same home.
Our population now is somewhere around 95,000 people in the CBRM.
That is the same population in the CBRM boundaries as we had in the 1930s.
In 15 years from now, we may have only a projected 78,000 people left.
The last time our population was so low was around 1915. That's 100 years ago!
So in 2031 we may have fallen behind in population by a full century?
As Cape Bretoners steadily leave, taxes steadily keep going up anyway.
In 2006, taxes were about $650 a year for every person living here.
By 2016, those taxes are now about $1,050 a year for every person living here.
By 2031 (15 years from now), if projections are correct, those taxes will be about $2,050 for every person living here.
We cannot tax ourselves out of existence.
We can push back against our decline by starting to reverse this trend.
Vote for Rankin, and smoke out the current leadership.

www.RankinForMayor.com

Note: This is an independent message, not affiliated with the Rankin MacSween mayoral campaign. Information and opinion is presented by the author and video producer only.

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Cecil Clarke and Rankin MacSween have different tax proposals. Rankin will lower it by 2.5% a year. Here is why that has to happen now. We're sliding backwards.

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P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-22 7:19 AM ADT Reply 0 0 Joe : Part of the taxation puzzle is found in the administration of the assessments . First , the conflict of interest. The Property Valuation Assessment Corporation "PVAC" is not arm's length . It is managed by the same municipalities that benefit from the taxes . Second, the appeals process is not transparent . Third, there are all sorts of inconsistencies . Example , hundreds of rental vacation properties are not taxed commercial , so lost revenue . Properties in the very same areas can vary significantly in the history of their increases and decreases . Properties often sell for far more than the assessed value and yet the assessment does not increase accordingly. Finally , suppose you want to look at the assessment for your Greenfield lands or Archibald wharf area and want to see the history . Best of luck . Why ??? Joe Ward My Post Follow Me 2016-08-22 11:30 AM ADT Reply 1 0 (Perhaps) I wouldn't tax vacation properties (i.e. cottages) as commercial unless the owner has more than one vacation property, actively rented, not including their primary residence. AirBNB is also a great marketing channel that helps encourage people to visit an area (savvy travelers, the TrumpBumped ones). Reasoning is that it would actually discourage investment and slow the rate of build out of such properties (i.e. taxable assets, and injection into the construction and services economy). Likewise, for many, investing in these for their own use only becomes an affordable or more desirable decision if they know that they can collect some money seasonally by renting to other families who don't have such a cottage available. And it also encourages families, from here, but currently living away, to come for a longer visit in the summer. While living in Florida, I rented a cottage on the Mira for a month... because that monthly rental was reasonable. There would not have been comfortable accommodations otherwise, and it would have cut my trip in half. You can only jam into your parents' home, fighting for sofa space and bathroom time, for so long. :) "Everybody’s going to the bungalow – the bunga – bunga – low" The song also includes the line: "I don't have no bungalow..." :P Michael MacNeil Follow Me 2016-08-22 8:04 PM ADT Reply 2 0 I agree Joe, I live on a beach and would love to have the option to rent my place 2 months of the year to help with my retirement income someday without paying an arm and a leg in taxation or any other fees .I worked in Tourism for many years with a smaller seasonal income and I know that the tourism business is not an easy go for operators, however driving a tax on the odd bungalow helps no one. I know appraisals and caps are not fair and costing the municipality money.However the caps were started to protect the municipal government from itself. These caps need to stay until a municipality can start living with in its means and that means cost cutting. Cecil Clarke states he will not raise taxes and Rankin states he will start reducing taxes. Rankins plan is the only way to attract business here Michael MacNeil Follow Me 2016-08-22 8:20 PM ADT Reply 1 0 Part 2 http://www.capebretonpost.com/News/Local/2016-08-20/article-4620773/Cape-Breton-Farmers%26rsquo%3B-Market-on-hunt-for-new-venue/ This article shows the other side where taxation might have got out of hand regarding local start up business. Farmers markets should be encouraged at both North Sydney and Sydney locations as close to the wharf that you can get. It should be considered the vocal point for both locations. I would think it should also be the location to show case our local talent and promote local arts. On another note I would like to see 0% tax incentives for new business start ups for 5 or 10 years. The way I see we are not collecting any tax from non existent business so what the hell. We might get some new tax from employees building homes. On another note I would like to see windmills located at our empty business parks and 0% tax for 10 years and cheap green power available to them Crazy maybe Anybody else have an answer to " if not ports than what?" Any crazier than Container Terminals or Marinas for the rich Joe Ward My Post Follow Me 2016-08-22 10:10 PM ADT Reply 0 0 There is nothing crazy about it at all. I agree with you Michael. It's a leveraged investment. We could charge $1000,000 a year per business and it would net nothing in tax revenue for the CBRM, because they absolutely won't come here. But we could charge 0% tax and start recruiting businesses to this region. The policies that have been in place have been betting on our decline. Eventually, the tax base erodes so far that it's a full failure scenario. What happens then? The province takes over management? We're at 1930s level population now. In 15 years, we'll be at 1915 levels of population. I'm not sure how long people think this trend can continue. I see very little evidence that more than a handful of people in this region know how to market or to create an actual compelling value proposition (or heaven forbid, a competitive advantage) for living, visiting, or doing business here. Thank goodness the island, for the most part, is able to rely on its natural beauty and several world renowned attractions. P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:24 AM ADT Reply 0 0 1. Casual renting is far different than running your vacation house like a business , surely . 2.The cap system was supposed to be helping with affordability. It did not . It is not an income tested tax exemption . It need not cost a penny if it were done as a deferral instead . Caps don't protect the municipality as the revenue from taxes are not know until a year later really . 3. Offering tax deals to attract business is a whole different math than the cap system. Tax discounts to attract investment is the way the City of Victoria redeveloped their downtown and put Halifax to shame .
Jim Clark Follow Me 2016-08-22 8:51 AM ADT Reply 0 0 That's some rather gloomy insight P Sheehan. Hopefully if Rankin gets elected, some of those issues will be forced to the surface as a result of the tax changes. P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-22 9:05 AM ADT Reply 0 0 Jim : it's all about politicians and bureaucrats understanding the "system" that supports the municipal business they are really running . The private sector watches every penny and maximizes every dollar . Municipalities tend to just roll along and never really question data they get from any third party, but given that assessments are the one key number that drives everything about their tax revenues , you would think they would watch it like a hawk , but my experience says they do not . On top of that ,they APPOINT the Board of Directors that runs the PVAC system , so in effect they indirectly direct, and employ all the management and the assessors . Do they check the results ?? Try looking up assessments for your own area and see what you find . Personally , I think it's a combination of a management problem and a computer data base system not being used as a way to help the public and really work with the public . Rankin can't lower taxes unless he is 100% certain of the residential and commercial trend lines of assessments and taxes . Michael MacNeil Follow Me 2016-08-22 8:45 PM ADT Reply 0 0 Peter baby steps, baby steps. You are correct but it needs to happen slowly or complete chaos will be added to a very delicate economy. I would suggest cost cutting over creating a situation that might end up doubling the taxation on some poor pensioner trying to keep their home. P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:28 AM ADT Reply 0 0 The seniors who are on fixed incomes do deserve help to stay in their homes, but no municipality is doing anything to zero in on that as they are afraid of the administration work and afraid of anything that involves income testing. Again , just defer the taxes as the house will be sold someday . Better to protect the market pricing than screw up the market data with torqued and twisted assessments . P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:59 AM ADT Reply 0 0 Jim: The tax laws are really a provincial law and even though the Municipal Government Act is now under review , I have not seen or heard of one municipality proposing changing the laws to give a municipality more flexibility in setting tax rates , having deferrals and discounts, retaining and managing the revenues from their room taxes , or having any more transparency from the PVAC. Also no new thinking on municipal procurement or sales of assets. It's a "don't rock da boat" review, being done to keep under the radar from the taxpayers . All of CB will be paying a big price if these municipalities are not legislated to be more transparent with their books and decisions.
Christian Murphy Follow Me 2016-08-22 11:20 PM ADT Reply 2 0 I have a fun idea for the Municipality, perhaps council should create a new tax, I call it a Pole Tax. Since Emera aka Nova Scotia Power like to give us this wood on a regular basis, bi-monthly! Perhaps we as a community should tax each pole they have in the region? Man what a riot that would be. Imagine if each municipality jumped on board? I magine that, every time they raise prices, the pole tax goes up. 8-) Michael MacNeil Follow Me 2016-08-22 11:29 PM ADT Reply 0 0 Excellent idea, I say 16 cents for those ugly poles they erected in Coxheath, Anyone ever seen them? How are planning department ever allowed it is mind blowing. Its like allowing a ship yard to be built in a tourist area verse an empty Marine Industrial Park. I wonder how much the residents tax was reduced there? Michael MacNeil Follow Me 2016-08-22 11:36 PM ADT Reply 0 0 I would say that the municipality isn't even watching what Nova Scotia power is putting through the municipality for the Muskrat Falls link. First department for Rankin to look for cuts The ones responsible for our Planning Strategy because it looks like we don't have one P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:35 AM ADT Reply 0 0 It's time that development planning were done in 3D. It's time too for having architectural criteria to apply to certain areas of development . Halifax is destroying itself by allowing developers to build anything, so you now you have a bunch of glass blocks , little brick siding and certainly no exteriors that blend with the neighbourhoods or the image the city keeps marketing as being a historic port . Joe Ward My Post Follow Me 2016-08-22 11:32 PM ADT Reply 0 0 Having lived in Florida in nice neighborhoods up until 2014, I just can't adapt to the ugliness of entangled wires everywhere. Such an unsightly mess. P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:31 AM ADT Reply 0 0 Utilities should be buried where ever possible . It affects the cost of the house so you offset that with a first year tax discount , or you lend them the money at 2% above prime .
P Sheehan Follow Me 2016-08-23 5:17 AM ADT Reply 0 0 Joe: vacation rentals today is a business for many. They are not renting the seller typical family cottage to friends etc but they are renting houses , often large ones in prime waterfront locations, and getting top dollar because they advertise . Some advertise on 2-3 booking sires so are spending $4-500 per site and maybe plus another 15% in booking fees . So we are talking about taxation on houses, often are owned by non-residents, that range as high as $350,000. These owners are thinking of business and RO Investment. Slowly they have, in many areas, caused B&B's to close and have maybe caused the end of anyone constructing any new cottage rental businesses . So annually they benefit from a potential $2000- $3500 to $4500 tax break, they can cherry pick the market , yet pay no taxes , increase users of services , benefit from all the industry advertising and seldom even employ a person . Many houses are in the $150-300 K range for sure . They are not the typical cottages.You like ??? You end up paying for it . Air B&B and VRBO etc do not bring more tourists , but do bring the very frugal tourist as they are booking these places to save money ; they are not spenders to start with . Many come with as much of their provisions as they can and rarely dine out.Their spin off is very reduced With maybe 700-1000 such rentals on CB , do the math .