Reader makes call for tax relief

Dear Editor,

One of the unavoidable expenses of property ownership is property taxes.

Locally, our tax bill is split between our resident community, the Regional Municipality of Durham, and the school board one supports.

Property taxes are no small expense to property owners and represent a real financial challenge for many low income property owners.

Therefore, any sort of property tax relief would  be welcome.

Therefore, it is confusing to understand why the Regional Municipality of Durham, which receives approximately 40 per cent of our property tax  payments, has not provided this tax relief when it seems to be entirely capable of doing so.

I say this because the regional level of our government has within its $2.6 billion investment portfolio, a property tax stabilization reserve created expressly for that purpose.

It should be noted that this tax stabilization reserve had a $246 million balance as at the end of 2018.  Also, it seems that this reserve has rarely, if ever, been used for tax stabilization and/or relief since its inception decades ago.

Until the region uses this massive reserve for its intended purpose many Durham property owners will not only struggle to pay their property tax bill but will also be entirely justified in believing they are being overtaxed and disrespected.

I have on more than one occasion brought this matter to the attention of Durham region council and have been met with silence and indifference.

Greg Milosh