City staff is looking at tacking user fees for storm sewers on your utility bill as discussed at council tonight.
You may ask why? The answer was not clear tonight but there is a want to separate the item from sewage fees in order to understand better where the tax dollars are being spent.
Your possible storm sewer fee will be based on the size and zoning of your property.
There was talk that if the user fees were in place, the tax levy could go down but staff said that there is work needed on storm sewers which the user fee would fund.
How much would it mean to a property owner? Storm sewers make up about an eighth of tax dollars compared to sewage.
As a North Bay resident (born/raised in the Sault), I will say our taxes have risen so much and the cost of utilities etc. that many, many people have left to move to the south or other provinces. (jobs are impossible to find here, also, just like the Sault) If people aren’t bringing home an increase in wages, it gets to the point that people cannot afford to stay and I hope they seriously reconsider this. It could be the beginning of the end. Things are tough enough in northern Ontario.
More and more tax payers are going to leave the Sault because of ever-increasing tax rates and ever diminishing services…..We need full discoloured from our Mayor and our City Council. We deserve and should always provide to us and we should always have the ability to view, where every single one of our tax dollars is going and we should also be given a list that shows all wages being paid to City.
Sewage fees are a joke any way you look at them. We’re mainly paying for the incompetent design of the plant and the many attempts to minimize the stench of it. I’m guessing that there will be HST on the storm sewer charges too. Bend over and grab your ankles folks.
Reducing the tax levy? All they’re doing is taking the same amount or more taxpayer money and putting it on a different line on the budget. Instead of taxes, they’ll call this user fees or PUC operating results and the net result is the same. Astute political gamesmanship that we need to be on guard for. Council will keep playing these sorts of games so they can be re-elected but we can’t afford their games, words and lack of action anymore.
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