Vancouver wants to raise house property tax

According to this story on News 1130 Vancouver city council would like to double property tax for homeowners from the original four percent increase they recently decided on. This move is an effort to shift some of the tax burden from businesses in the city to homeowners.

Councillor Peter Ladner explained businesses have been paying six times what homeowners pay in property taxes. He said, "We have to catch up because we are hearing very clearly from the business community that our taxes are killing them, and they're killing our neighbourhoods and they're making it impossible for people to keep businesses going in the city."

If this proposal goes through, local businesses would see very little or no increase in their tax bill. Their goal is to bring our current 6-1 ratio closer to the standard 3.5 to 1 ratio of other cities, and what better time to raise taxes then a housing boom?