Higher property taxes needed: poll

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2014 (4000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most Winnipeggers accept the need for higher property taxes, a new poll shows.

According to a new Winnipeg Free Press/CTV Winnipeg poll, two-thirds of Winnipeggers said a property-tax increase is inevitable to maintain basic municipal services.

“People generally think the city needs more money to pay for existing services and the idea some things can be cut in order to make that up just doesn’t seem to be flying with the majority of the public,” said Curtis Brown, vice-president of Probe Research.

 

 

 

The survey found that nearly two-thirds of Winnipeggers (64 per cent) agree that property-tax increases are inevitable to maintain basic services — with 30 per cent who strongly agree and 34 per cent who moderately agree.

Strong support for a property-tax increase was found in all neighbourhoods across Winnipeg; among a majority of supporters of the three main political parties; across gender and age groups and, income and education levels.

 

 

 

Probe conducted a random and representative telephone survey of 602 adults between Sept. 18 and Oct. 1. The margin of error is plus or minus four per cent, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is higher within each of the survey’s sub-groups.

Brown wasn’t surprised at the level of support for a property tax increase.

“No one likes a tax increase but one of the things we found in some of our previous research is when people can actually see the money is going to something tangible, they’re more likely to accept it,” Brown said. “This has been an issue that has been debated at length over the (civic election) campaign… the argument that taxes do have to go up a little because the city has limited resources and they need (an increase) to pay for existing services, it seems that argument is winning out.”

And Winnipeggers definitely see how their property-tax dollars should be spent. The survey found that a majority (61 per cent) agree the next city council should invest revenues into fixing existing infrastructure.

There was little interest (21 per cent) in spending tax dollars on expanding regional roadways and when it came to expanding the rapid-transit network, only 14 per cent said this should be a priority.

“Winnipeggers from all walks of life are saying infrastructure needs to be fixed,” Brown said. “Given all the attention around frozen pipes in the spring, brown water last year, and pot holes, it’s not surprising people are saying that’s the priority, that’s where the money has to be spent.

 “Fixing what we have is going to win, rather than building new — transit or improving the major roadways — and that’s pretty clear."

 

 

 

The public’s lack of support for expanding rapid transit confirms the findings of a Probe poll in June, where a majority of respondents wanted the issue placed on a referendum in the Oct. 22 election and most of those indicated they would vote against it.

Chris Lorenc, president of the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, said they have been pushing the city for years to renew its infrastructure and during this year’s election it has given all mayoral candidates its four-point municipal infrastructure investment strategy.

Lorenc said he’s not surprised the public wants infrastructure to be fixed.

“The public is smarter than sometimes politicians give them credit for,” he said.

“It’s clear, important and intelligent.”

Colin Craig, Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said his experience is the public changes its mind on tax increases when they find out the ways city hall could curb spending.

Craig said if the civic employees had been limited to only cost-of-living increases in the last decade, instead of the contracts they received, enough money would have been saved to double the amount of money spent on roads this year. The city planned to spend about $84 million this year on fixing roads.

“That’s a pretty powerful number,” he said.

The public’s lack of support for expanding rapid transit confirms the findings of a Probe poll in June, in which a majority of respondents wanted the issue put to a referendum in the Oct. 22 election, and most of those indicated they would vote against it.

“There isn’t exactly a huge groundswell of support for rapid transit and for expanding rapid transit,” Brown said.

Winnipeggers’ attitudes toward a property tax increase and placing a priority on fixing existing services could explain how former city councillor Gord Steeves is coming up short in the mayoral campaign.

All candidates put repairing existing infrastructure at the top of their priority lists, but only Steeves, among the major candidates, strongly supported a tax freeze — placing himself at odds with the overwhelming majority of Winnipeggers.

Brown said, not surprisingly, Steeves’ supporters were most opposed to a tax increase — but unfortunately for Steeves, they are in the minority.

Brown said he didn’t know whether Steeves’ strong support for a property-tax freeze accounts for his slide in public support, but it does place him at odds with most Winnipeggers.

“Taxes have been frozen for a long time. People are starting to see the effects of that with the problems we’ve seen with infrastructure recently,” Brown said. “The public really does see that more money needs to be raised as opposed to just freezing the tax rate.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Kevin Rollason