Dear Editor,
Richmond homeowners, you should have received your 2016 property tax notice recently.
Did you look at it carefully?
A little more than halfway down the page you find total taxes payable (ours is $6,222.91 ) and a little further down, I see the words, “If you were to enrol in the 10-month Tax Pre-authorized Withdrawal Plan (PAWS), your estimated monthly payment amount for next year’s taxes would be $801.”
Estimated, right to the dollar!
Let’s see; $800 per month for 10 months comes to $8,000 (notice I’m rounding off the numbers a bit). That is about $1,777 more in taxes than for this year.
That means that I (we), the homeowners can look forward to a 26 per cent increase in property taxes for next year.
How many of you are expecting a 26 per cent increase in your income next year?
Shouldn’t the huge increase in housing and taxpayers in Richmond over the last decade put enough tax money in the city’s pot to keep the tax rate steady or possibly a little lower?
We are rapidly becoming a city of highrise chicken coops, parking lots with a loss of trees, open areas, and views.
That’s progress and we all are paying for it!
Doug Symons
Richmond
