kingston vacant home tax plan too expensive, ineffective, study shows
vacant home tax proposal would cost a lot to set up and operate and only add a handful of homes to the housing market
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sydenham district coun. conny glenn.
elliot ferguson
/
the whig-standard
kingston — city council is likely to reject a proposed new vacant home tax because it would be too expensive and likely wouldn’t work, according to a report.
the tax proposal was put forward as a way to encourage property owners to either sell or rent vacant residences.
city staff are recommending that council not proceed with the new tax because it would cost too much to implement and would only result in between two and seven vacant properties being put on the sale or rental market.
“while the revenue generated from a vht could be used to strategically invest in other municipal initiatives, such as affordable housing, the primary objective of the program is to motivate change in behaviour of property owners that would result in vacant units being available for occupancy. owners may be encouraged to either sell or rent under-utilized properties,” stated a report to council from city treasurer desiree kennedy.
other ontario municipalities have put similar taxes in place, including ottawa, toronto, hamilton, windsor and sault ste. marie.
a vacant home tax program, proposed by sydenham dist. coun. conny glenn more than two years ago, would either need the property owner to self-declare their property as vacant and essentially volunteer to pay hundreds of dollars a year in additional taxes, or the city could act on complaints from other people.
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a self-declaration-based program would cost between $535,000 and $995,000 to set up and almost $250,000 a year to operate.
a complaint-based system would be significantly cheaper, costing about $107,000 to set up and almost $77,000 annually to operate.
“the program would require substantial administrative resources to enforce compliance, including annual property status declarations from owners,” kennedy wrote.
the vacant home tax is to be considered at council’s tuesday night meeting.
elferguson@postmedia.com
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