Parry Sound 2016 Annual Report
30 Thursday Mar 2017
Written by parry034 in Budget/Financial, Parry Sound, Reflections
Tags
Capital Investment, Infrastructure, Opinion, parry sound, Taxes, TOPS Financial Analysis
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The Parry Sound 2016 Annual Report came out yesterday, or at least it was in my mail yesterday. It’s an interesting read and does a good job of summarizing what was accomplished and where the money was spent.
It’s nice to think that as a town we really don’t need any improvements or investments, and that taxes should be frozen, or even reduced. Like any living organism, or organization, growth and renewal require ongoing investment. While you may be perfectly happy with that new kitchen you installed in the 70s, residents and businesses do expect services and facilities to be maintained and refurbished as necessary.
The reality is that as a community we provide, and pay for, services and infrastructure that are a necessity for our low tax neighbours. Our neighbours seem to have problems rationalizing an investment in the high speed internet they insist is critical for their future. But when your neighbour provides most essential services why not look to the Province and Canada to provide for things that Parry Sound doesn’t?
I realize that people are frustrated by the municipal tax load carried by Town of Parry Sound residents and businesses. After attending some five years of council meetings and budget discussions I am unable to accuse Council and Staff of making unwise investments. There are any number of expenditures that I disagree with, but these are nickel and dime items in terms of the whole budget. Even if you consider all of the nickel and dime issues they don’t add up to a loonie. My sense is that if you want Parry Sound services and low taxes, move to McDougall or Seguin. Consider Carling and McKellar if you don’t mind the longer drive to Parry Sound. You will be coming here for one thing or another, pretty much every day.
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March 30, 2017 at 11:22 am
I agree with your latest JO. The outlying municipalities are getting a free ride while an old senior citizen like me provides them with the urban infrastructure that everyone needs. But do I sit and gnash my teeth over this injustice? No point in doing that, so I just grin and bear it.
I console myself by looking at the big picture. How much does it cost me to live on a yearly basis? How much does it cost my daughters, and their families to live in Seguin, and how much does it cost my nephew to live in McDougall for a full year to gain access to the services they require in Parry Sound? They have multiple costly autos to maintain for starters.
The first quarter of 2017 is coming to a close and I will pay $1003.00 for my 1st installment of municipal taxes. I am not sure what they pay. But they have paid hundreds of dollars in fuel to gain access to those services in Parry Sound in the past 3 months…….I have paid nothing for fuel.
If I were to have sole use of my auto, I might drive only a few hundred km per month, so I share it with a family member who pays for all the fuel. So going to work in Town, transportation costs for five round trips a week, plus numerous other weekly trips for grocery shopping, and to attend family appointments for numerous professional services etc. Plus double the delivery charge on their electric bill than I experience on mine.
I also have a fire department, an ambulance service, and a Police department just a few minutes away. They don’t.
I could name more personal benefits that I enjoy but will leave it at that.
That is how I shoulder the inequities in area taxation.
I notice in the chart that my municipal taxes only pay for 50% of the cost of running the Town? So I am paying (out of pocket) only $4000.00 for the $8000.00 of actual cost? And I get a $500.00 property tax grant from the Province to boot?
So I am enjoying $8000.00 worth of services and it is costing me only $3500.00 per annum? And I can shop downtown without feeding a parking meter now.
I am laughing all the way to the Bank. Commuters in the outlying area are not. fwiw
March 30, 2017 at 11:45 am
Cliff, thanks for the smile. Yup, there are always people who ride for free, or at a reduced rate. In speaking with people from the ‘burbs’ I find they have stronger opinions about what we should be doing in Parry Sound than what should be done in their own municipalities. They figure it’s easier to get Parry Sound to do it than their own councils.
March 31, 2017 at 9:44 am
Cliff, I can’t speak for your daughter, but I can speak for myself, also a seguin resident.
You say $1003 is your first instalment? First of how many, is that quarterly? I’ll assume so.
In that case, your quarterly instalment is only a little less than my total yearly taxes of $1400 and change.
In a year then when you pay over $4000, I’ll still pay only $1400. That’s $2600 difference.
I’m not sure what kind of fuel economy your daughter gets, but we budget $200 a month for gas. That’s $2400 a year. That’s within a few hundred bucks of the tax differential, so I’d say that should probably be considered a wash.
Of course, there’s other expenses we could compare. You’ll pay a monthly water and sewer Bill in town. When I lived in town, we budgeted $125 a month for that. That’s an extra $1500 a month you pay to live in town. On the other hand, in seguin I have to pay to maintain my own well and septic. So far, in 3 years, that has cost me $0, so I’m well ahead of you on that. But one or the other could go at any time, and then I’d be on the hook for thousands, so then you’d catch up real quick.
Bottom line, I think the issue is a little more complicated than you and jo characterize it. Jo – and you as well it looks like – love to nurture the narrative that on the one hand Parry sound taxes are reasonable and most residents can easily pay them and therefore should do so happily, while on the otherhand the municipalities are populated by rich freeloaders who flee to the low tax havens because they want to shirk paying their fair share of the Parry sound services they still use, and then sit there and try to tell Parry sound what to do to boot! Of course, neither side of that narrative is true, but it’s still entertaining when jo gets going on a good rant about it.
April 3, 2017 at 9:02 am
Ryan, I’m glad to provide the entertainment. I would prefer to think of it as needling rather than ranting. But I’m sure Donald Trump likes to think he is being serious, and being taken seriously, when he Tweets.
The same way I can’t criticize a bear for stripping our apple tree of apples night, I can’t criticize people for taking advantages of ‘low hanging’ services and benefits. It’s animal nature.
You have been critical of Parry Sound’s high municipal tax rate and have suggested that it needs to come down to encourage investment. After sitting through five or six years of budget discussions I am at a loss to see where we can cut substantial expenses that wouldn’t materially disadvantage businesses and residents (not to mention our neighbours). To reach the tax rate levels of Seguin and Carling, Parry Sound would need to cut expenses by two-thirds, and some of them, for example OPP costs can’t be ‘cut’. I invite you to sit down with me and together we take a look at the Parry Sound budget to see where cuts can be made. I would be happy to post up your suggestions and see how the community, inside and outside of Parry Sound, responds.
The Parry Sound budget is a bit like the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Many Americans feel it is bloated, out of control, and unnecessary. Some feel it should just be eliminated. That is until they take a look at what it actually accomplishes and the consequences of replacing it with a ‘lower cost’ alternative. Donald Trump famously stated that he didn’t realize that healthcare was so complex. But, he was willing to criticize the existing ACA program and suggest he could make it better for less money. It seems so simple to fix a problem until you are actually handed the problem.
April 3, 2017 at 11:30 am
I’m sure if we went through the budget I could find quite a few things that I think could be cut or reduced. Thing is, those would reflect my preferences and priorities. Outdoor musical instruments, for example, would never have gained my approval. That’s one of the inherent defects of liberal democracy: the desire to respect all preferences leads to more prioritizing than we can afford.
Now that I think of it though, it’s interesting that we seem to agree on the essential premise. Is the status quo good and acceptable? I would say no, and that the problem is high taxes. You would say no, and that the problem is freeloading municipalities who utilize regional services whose full cost is unfairly borne by Parry sound alone. So we disagree on the cause, but we agree on the point: the status quo is not ideal.