Property taxes, municipal services, increasing costs, bigger potholes - all are part of the reality of today's urban centre. This paper examines taxation in the Halifax Regional Municipality and recommends how municipal taxation can be more efficient and accountable.
The federal government has no constitutional right to give cities access to new revenue sources and financing instruments, and should not participate with cities in revenue-sharing programs concludes Professor Harry Kitchen, author of Financing City Services: A prescription for the future, the latest paper in AIMS’ Urban Futures Series. Cities have become increasingly important players in the competitive global economy and have seen a dramatic increase in reliance on own-source revenues over the past 12 to 15 years. The result is the current call for a massive influx of federal dollars under a renewed national “cities agenda”, but Kitchen concludes that there is much the cities could do to put their own houses in order including changing assessment practices, improving development charges and replacing provincial gas taxes with municipal charges. Read his full paper to discover how cities can make it on their own.