Re: Rape of Flamborough

When I read the editorial in the May 2 edition of the Mountain News, I quickly flipped back to the front page to be sure I had not picked up the Flamborough Review. While I can respect everyone is entitled to their opinion, I was always under the impression that the Mountain News editorial was supposed to reflect the trials and tribulations of the Mountain residents. More over, I was also under the impression that newspapers were suppose to check their facts before printing them.

Let's start with the first inaccurate point - "Flamborough residents . . . have had to pay the highest taxes each year since amalgamation."

A constituent from Flamborough recently asked me to find a house in Ward 8 that paid higher taxes than a Flamborough home of the same value. I did so easily. The Flamborough resident paid $5,459.69 for a house valued at $418,000. A house in Ward 8 valued at $396,000 paid $6319.31. The Flamborough home paid $859.62 less than a home in Ward 8, but was worth $22,000 more. Flamborough has the second highest valued homes, the second highest median income, yet pays less tax than a home valued at the same amount anywhere else in the amalgamated city.

The next mistaken statement takes a little more to explain - "They have paid barrels of tax money and helplessly watched as their hard-earned money is wasted on inner city projects."

While I agree that the residents in the suburbs have paid a lot in taxes, so have the other wards. But lets take a step back.

Almost 30 years ago the province introduced Regional Government to support the significant cost for infrastructure that was necessary to support the growth of the outlying areas. This decision required the Region (Hamilton) to provide many services to the outlying communities. Policing, waste management, water and waste water services, storm water management, Social Services, Public Health, economic development, legal advice, regional roads maintenance and regional planning are just a few of the former Regional Services. The City of Hamilton was contributing roughly 70 per cent towards the cost of these services while the outlining communities covered 30 per cent. For more than 25 years Hamilton provided all these services prior to amalgamation, but I do not recall the City of Hamilton residents screaming for the abolishment of the Regional Government.

Fast forward to the year prior to amalgamation . . . .

The provincial government downloaded many costs to municipalities which they were not equipped to pay. At the same time Current Value Assessment started to take hold. The Municipality has no control over the assessment models. I wish it did. Ward 8 has seen a 39 percent assessment increase since 2001, not much lower than the average in Flamborough of 45 percent. Dramatic tax shifts were taking place. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, amalgamation was pushed through.

In order to create harmony, several tax buffers were created to lessen the effect of Current Value Assessment on the outlying areas. Hamilton was the only city in Ontario that made these decisions, and it is apparent that these buffers have only made equalizing and unifying the City Of Hamilton more difficult. There were many different aspects to this buffer - Area Rating; Hamilton Utilities absorbed the liabilities of the Flamborough Utilities; the use of approximately $1.5 million of the Casino Revenue to pay down the Borer's Creek debt and the remaining $1.5 million of the casino revenue to offset the tax increases in Flamborough largely attributed to the significant increase in the value of their homes. Again, this was only meant as a temporary buffer, but Flamborough received even more of the casino revenue ($3.2 million) in 2007, not less.

The notion that because the money from the casino was generated in Flamborough, it should stay there makes no sense. Some inner city wards have some of the poorest residents in the City Of Hamilton - should they be allowed to keep all the tax revenue generated from the industry in their wards to offset their taxes? Should wards without industry be forced to pay higher taxes because there are no large commercial sources of tax revenue? Let's be realistic - if we start dividing up where the revenue goes according to where it was generated, it will be a very slippery slope. Judging from the emails and phone calls I have received, many residents in Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Dundas, Ancaster and Glanbrook agree.

Every ward is faced with challenges. As a community, we need to be aware of each others tribulations and look beyond the ward boundaries. The pointing of fingers must stop! The residents of Flamborough are hard working; they pay their taxes and contribute significantly to the community as do all other wards in our city. I came from a small community and appreciate some of the frustration that is being felt. It is time we work as a whole community and not as a divided community. We can accomplish a lot if we give it a chance and move forward as one city.

Councillor Terry Whitehead

Ward 8