"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 8 February 2013

An Acronym with Force and Meaning

Further to the post : Who's MindingThe Shop? 

I just read a  staff report submitted to Council on March 10th  2009
It is  noted Newmarket, Richmond Hill and the Town of Vaughan have similar public/ private partnerships and the properties are exempt from taxes.
The internal  argument has been that to obtain tax exempt status, an application needs to be made under a particular section of a particular act and it is very complicated and not worth the bother. 

 It is not apparent from the report, that Newmarket ,Richmond Hill and the Town of Vaughan were obliged to process an application under the particularly complicated process referred to  consistently by Aurora  treasury staff.

Whether or not they did, it was apparently worthwhile. 

In the time we have been paying taxes on the property, it has cost  the town  half a million dollars  paid to the Board of Education and the Region of York. 

Those  were  taxes   not paid by neighbouring municipalities within the Region for properties used in public/private partnerships exactly similar to the one we have in the Town of Aurora.

Now  I ask , do we think the municipality has been well-served in this matter?

My response must be; WTF        

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

But we have all these Sunshine Boys at the Aurora Town Hall. No?

Anonymous said...

Dumb question: Could staff not pick up the phone and call staff at Newmarket, Richmond Hill or Vaughan to inquire how they did it?

Does this require a council resolution to pick up the phone and talk to someone who has done it before?

Anonymous said...

Who pays the taxes on the old hydro building ?
The Kiddies??