Letter to the editor – Tax Rates

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Dear Editor,

An article last week by Deron Johnston, titled “Tax Rates”, implies that we shouldn’t be so unhappy to pay our high property taxes, because the municipal tax rates in North Grenville are lower than those in a few of the other local municipalities, including Ottawa. His concluding sentence states, “So, the next time you open your tax bill and cringe, just remember: compared to other places, your taxes really aren’t as high as you may think”. The author is correct that some of the other local municipalities have higher tax rates than North Grenville’s, which stands at $1,125 per $100,000 of assessed value. Let’s look further afield.

TAX RATES by Deron Johnston

Across the border, in the state of Hawaii, the effective averaged property tax rate is $270 per $100,000 of assessed value. On the state median home value of $563,900, you would pay $1,523 per year in property taxes. In Colorado, the rate is about double Hawaii’s, but still half of North Grenville’s. In fact, there are 30 states, plus the District of Columbia, in the USA that have lower property tax rates than North Grenville. The other 20 states have higher rates, with the highest rate in New Jersey, at $2,440 per $100,000 assessed value. Most of the high tax states are northern states, where there is lots of data showing an exodus out of these high tax states, partly due to high property taxes.

Coming back to Canada, there are some really shocking numbers. Vancouver, at $240 per $100,000 beats Hawaii. On a million dollar home in Vancouver, you would pay $2,468 in property taxes. This is less than one quarter of North Grenville’s tax rate, and there is evidence that this is part of the reason home values have gone up so much in Vancouver.

Oh, you say, the above are all far away places. So now we’ll go to the GTA. Here’s a short list;

(Property tax per $100,000 assessed value)
Toronto $636;
Markham $694;
Richmond Hill $718;
Oakville $753;
Mississauga $824;
Barrie $1,000.

These rates are all lower than North Grenville’s $1,125 per $100,000. Are you still happy with your high property taxes?

Stephen Hammond

1 COMMENT

  1. Why is right. Also why I complain at times of large budgets for pathways bike lanes etc things that as a older rural resident I will never use. Often wish that Oxford Mills was its own entity again

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