Editorial — It’s still only preliminary

November 15, 2017 · 0 Comments

The Town of Caledon has started serious work on its 2018 budget, as has the Region of Peel.
Town staff made its first formal presentation on the budget Tuesday. As things now stand, the average Caledon household could be looking at a property tax increase of 3.35 per cent.
One thing that must be kept in mind is the Town is responsible for collecting taxes for the Region, as well as the local school boards. The figure cited above is predicated on the assumption that the Region’s share of taxes is only going up by about one per cent, and the education chunk that comes from property taxes is not going to change at all.
Another point that has to be stressed is nothing has been finalized yet. Councillors have only had a couple of hours of formal presentation. There is still time for the taxpayer to offer input on what’s being proposed. Indeed, the Town is planning an open-house session this coming Tuesday (Nov. 21) at Town Hall in Caledon East, starting at 7 p.m. to get public input on the proposed budget.
If you have a problem with what’s in the works, that’s going to be a great time to make your views known.
We don’t think any of us particularly enjoys paying taxes. But most of us have the good sense to realize that are a necessary evil, so we suck it up and pay them, always hoping they will be kept as low as possible.
But this is also the community in which we live, and we naturally want good facilities to use, good roads on which to drive, sound land-use planning decisions and fire and police services that will respond quickly in times of need. That’s what we all want, and we should know that none of it comes for free.
Thats why we have taxes, but it’s also why there are processes to allow taxpayers like us the chance for input.
We hope people take advantage.
One other thing to keep in mind is it’s going to be the elected officials, meaning mayor and councillors, who will make the decision on how high taxes go. And they are taxpayers too. What they do to us, they do also to themselves.
In other words, we all have an interest.