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economist suntribune municipal election 2000 saturday nov 112000 what kinds of services do you get for your tax dollars staff photorob alary east gwillimbury chief administrative officer and treasurer al evelyn says every municipality has its own figure to base municipal taxes on ipal tax rates by roy green staff writer with the municipal election four days away were all hearing a lot more about zero tax increases arid holding the line on taxes from can didates across york region but comparing services deliv ered for- municipal tax dollars in each of the nine regional munici- palities can be a tricky proposition for a start there is no gold stan dard no single easily translat able figure to provide an instant comparison of services delivered- perdollar of taxes from markham to vaughanto king and georgina every municipalityhas its own figure onwhat is the average home price to tielp illustrate what taxes the homeowner- will pay each year said al evelyn cao and treasurer in east gwillimbury we use 20000 as an average because its a good crosssection for homes here and people can relate- to that if their home is assessedat 300000 they know theyllbe pay ing 50 per cent more the person who lives in that average 200000 home in east gwillimbury will pay 2803 in taxes this year which includes the municipal levy as well as taxes passed on to the school boardahd york region 200000 average aurora and whitchurch- stouffville also use 200000 as an average so comparisons are some- what easier auroras tax on a 200000 home is 268480 and whitchurchstouffville levies 2600 but georgina with fewer larger homes uses 135000 for its aver- age the georgina resident living in that home pays 205460 in taxes in newmarket the average is 175000 which creates 2363 in tax dollars while in vaughan they use 250000 and collect 3190 richmond hill also uses 250000 which generates 3300 in taxes while in horse farm country pr icing township the figure- is 300000 which generates 3990 markham said assessment review officer gayelyn henderson used an average of 253000 for the 2000 budget year which generated taxes of 3300 we were unable to reacli officials in richmond hill for the purposes ofthis comparison its also tough to make compar isons between small rural cornmu- nities like east gwillimbury and heavily populated- municipalities like vaughan and markhafn you cant compare rural to urban requirements said vvaugharis director of finance barry jackson theneeds are completely different publictransit is a big fac tor in vaughan and is probably non- existent in east gwillimbury s nick- kristoffy treasurer in whitchurchstouffville agrees in lyfarkham for instance you expect urban services f a fulltime fire department versus a largely volun teer force in georgina and- of course market values are much higher for that reason so- shouldnt taxes be much much lower in those small rural municipalities that dont deliver much in the way of amenities there a riot- of rural roads to maintain without- a lot of assess- rhent to support them said evelyn there may be only a few homes on your road- but the roads have to be maintained just the same on the recreation side we dont have the population base to support a lot of- recreation facilities but we do- provide a good level of service same size still differences even within municipalities of similar size there are some differ ences it depends on the services that are offered said barb cribett aurora treasurer is garbage pick-up- once or twice per week is there a limit on the number of bags in georgina for instance resi dents pay 1 for tags to put on their garbage bags another method of comparison might be the tax rate for each municipality whicli ranges from 130 to 139 across york region except in georgina where it is 152 but georgina cao and treasurer stan armstrong said georgina is getting a bum rap because market value asssessrhent makes it appear that georginas tax rate isthe high- esfinyork everyone focuses on the tax rate but you haveto apply that rate toa different assessment figure 135000 in our case its better to compare with other municipalities on the same level as we are the rate in uxbridge for instance is150 nick kristoffy agrees in fairness tp georgina the market value of homes there are lower you still have to raise the same amouht of money and kristoffy adds york region municipalities fare very well when compared taxwise to other areas in thegta mississauga is at 140 pickering at 155 said kristoffy toronto appears very low at 121 butmarketvaliies there aremuch higher our tax rates in york aregen- erally lower