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Additional Information -
Inside Out
News from around the horseshoe
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By Bill Hutchins
The cost of owning a house or business in Kingston is going
up again this year. City council’s spending will outpace revenues
in 2008. The result is a property tax hike of 3.5 percent to make
up the difference. In dollar terms, that’s an extra $90 for
a house assessed at $212,000.
So, what does that buy you?
Service levels will be largely unchanged from 2007, with a few exceptions:
hiring extra police officers won’t be done right away; transit
fares are frozen while bus service is enhanced; extra staff will
respond to loud, late-night parties and other bylaw enforcement
calls; the Wally Elmer arena will be turned into a community hub
for Rideau Heights; and there’s municipal money floating into
the YMCA’s pool expansion.
Councillor Mark Gerretsen says he would have preferred a tax rate
around inflation or lower but says the political consensus was not
there. “I recognize everyone’s objectives are different.
We had a long, healthy debate. We’re getting what the consensus
wanted.”
This year’s tax hike actually amounts to 3.8 percent. The
city needs 3.5 percent, while the other 0.3 percent will go to the
Kingston hospitals expansion campaign. The small percentage increase
will raise $16 million over 12 years. . . .
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Profile Kingston and Summer in the City are divisions
of Riverview Publishing Inc.
© 2008 Profile Kingston/Summer in the City/Riverview Publishing
Inc.
No reproduction or republication in whole or part without written permission.
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