City council appealing for feds to change system that funds municipalities
St. Catharines city council has voted unanimously asking the federal and provincial governments to change funding formulas and to modernize growth frameworks for municipal governments.
Councillor Robin McPherson brought forth the motion, noting municipalities manage roughly 60-percent of infrastructure, but with only about 9% funding.
"This is not about increasing taxes, it's changing the funding model at the federal level. Property taxes alone cannot and will not support our city's infrastructure deficit, or allow our city to provide all the services our residents expect," she says.
She adds the system dates back to 1849.
Mayor Mat Siscoe called the property tax system the most regressive form of taxation. "Multiple municipalities are facing double digit property tax increases, and not the low one like ours... significantly higher than that, because the funding mechanism in this province is broken."
He warned if changes are not made, there will be large property tax hikes across the province.
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