The Less You Know

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Political Imperative ? Not":

Should the user pay?

This has been a question often asked but never satisfactorily answered.

A long-time neighbour has paid property taxes on their home for over forty years. They are childless. And yet a large portion of the tax they pay goes toward the cost of education. Is this fair?

What about the family four houses over with four children, all in university now. Their property taxes are about the same as those of the childless couple. But their four children travelled through the public school system, each for 13 years, counting kindergarten. So they received a huge benefit in comparison to the neighbour. Is this fair?

A similar question can be applied to municipal facilities, be they soccer fields, swimming pools, parks and roads. Is it possible to assess a user fee for these? Would such fees be fair?

It seems that this is a question without an equitable answer.
 *******************
There is an answer. Not equitable though.
For a number of years the Province has been absorbing increases in education taxes Their intention was to reduce  the burden of taxes for education . In response to demands from municipal politicians. It means the Province has complete authority.
No noticeable reduction in taxes occurred  though because council is advised  the intent was to leave more room for the municipality to tax for other programs.
It seems Councillors are all so well off  they can't imagine taxes being a hardship. Doesn't matter how the assessment base grows or senior leels of government hand over as share of this and that, we just keep jacking the taxes up.
We are putting money into reserve funds so that people who live here twenty ,thirty or forty years from now won't have to pay as much in taxes for what it costs to maintain the facilities built for them by us. 
There are user fees for most  municipal facilities. Except when waived for people who make a request. Usually a group  claiming  to be special or a charitable or non-profit organization.
It means a higher total for the charity by the amount of the user fee or more money in the pockets of a non-profit organization. 
Some groups pay no fees. The tennis club, lawn bowling club, men's soccer club. 
The  Legion is on the books as paying taxes. They don't. It's a transfer from town revenues to cover  their regional and education taxes and forfeit our own share.
The Legion has  two buildings on the property and they lease  part of the parking lot for school buses which  are privately owned.
The town bought a portion of their property from them a number of years ago to use for soccer fields. 
Then somebody came up with the brilliant idea for a public private partnership to erect a bubble to  accommodate soccer year -round.
Taxes on that are $50,000 a year for the twenty year term of the agreement which relieves the private operator of all taxes. 
So the town pays those taxes as well. 
An agreement with the Legion allowd access to the bubble  across their parking lot. I hear they put  chain across it to prohibit 
access. 
Now  you know a bit more than you did before. Sometimes it seems you may be better off not knowing.