at the risk of being accused of generalizing, I have come to believe that the reason our government has become so wasteful and ineffective is because of greedy politicians. Politics is easy. It's an area that doesn't always attract the sharpest knives in the drawer and unlike the private sector; if a politician fails to perform he can't be fired. Yes, he can be defeated at the polls, but given the strength of an incumbent politician's position that's often a very tough proposition.
Politicians have learned that the best way to keep their cushy jobs is to play to the lowest common denominator. Hence the almost obsessive preoccupation most politicians have with "the poor". Since the so-called "poor" comprise the lion's share of the population, all a politician has to do to stay in power and gain re-election is to demonstrate that he cares about the "poor" by taxing the bejeezus out of the "rich".
In Canada, the "rich" are defined as anyone making $65,000 per year or more, which encompasses approximately 15% of the population, meaning that the lions share of income taxes (about 78%) are paid by 15% of wage earners.
But that isn't the worst of it. What's become a larger problem and one with more severe consequences for many taxpayers is the increase in property taxes. In the Ontario community where I live, residential property taxes have increased by an average of 18% in one year. My own property taxes have increased over 44% since last year and word is that they are expected to go even higher.
My next-door neighbor, a retired Ministry of Corrections worker, had lived in his home since 1977. In 2004 his property taxes increased by almost 15%, forcing him to put his home on the market with a sale finalizing in September 2004. The new owner's property assessment indicated that the Municipal Property assessment Corporation (MPaC), the government's tax bloodhounds, believed the home had gained an additional 30% in value in the three months between September 2004 and January 2005.
Yet, despite record tax revenues our municipal politicians are crying poor and attempting to hit the province up for additional monies.
I see this as evidence that the people who are charged with steering the proverbial ship of state are asleep at the wheel and do not care one whit for the welfare of their citizens. Toronto Mayor David Miller and his numerically challenged city council is an example of this writ large. From day one Miller and his creepy cabal of commie councilors either didn't understand or care about the plight of average property tax payers in his city. That's why the city's unions now enjoy the sweetest of sweetheart deals, as in return for the unions' support, Miller and his Marxists pals are making sure that union members earn a "decent wage". and now that Premier Dalton Pinocchio has given Ontario's municipal administrations virtual carte blanche in the fundraising department through the clever ruse of having a crown corporation conduct annual property "assessments", it's entirely possible that in the very near future only the really rich are going to be able to afford to own their own homes as most homes will belong to the government for non-payment of taxes.
It appears there is one lone politician in Ontario that's alarmed at the trend. That's Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak, who plans to introduce a private member's bill in the provincial parliament that will limit property tax increases to no more than 5% per year. Called the Homestead act, the bill is designed to reverse the alarming trend of municipal tax grabs. But we all know what happens to private members' bills. an ice cube in the hottest section of hell has a better chance of surviving, than a private member's bill in parliament. Besides, holding property tax increases to 5% isn't good enough. They should be no more than the rate of inflation in any given year. Most taxpayers would see this as fair.
There is a real possibility that this incessant nibbling away at taxpayers' assets by government could trigger an economic crisis unlike any we've seen in history. Imagine for a moment if some 50% of all homeowners could no longer afford to pay their municipal property taxes and as a result had to put their homes up for sale. Property values would plunge at a precipitous rate and many municipalities would be stuck with properties seized for non-payment of taxes. That's a scenario much worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. That was precipitated by greedy investors borrowing money to finance pie in the sky. This new Great Depression is likely to be caused by greedy politicians who in their eagerness to stay in power will steal our money to buy our votes.
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