It’s unfortunate when the municipal budget process pits neighbour against neighbour.
However, in recent years we’re seeing increasing evidence of an urban/rural divide in attitude, even in Wellington, which is primarily a rural county.
For example, at a recent budget open house hosted by the Township of Mapleton, the high cost of maintaining the municipality’s network of rural roads and bridges prompted several citizens to ask if urban (if such a term can truly be applied to villagers) residents were subsidizing the farms which surround them.
It’s a fair question at a time when the value of farmland is soaring and, although it would take a great deal of accounting acumen to factor in all the trade-offs involved, it appears on the surface the answer would be yes. The reason has as much to do with revenue as expenses.
Prior to 1998, properties assessed as farmland paid 100% of their assessed tax to the local municipality, then filed an application with the province to receive a 75% rebate, paid directly by the province. Since then, farmland, other than the farm residence and one acre, has been allocated a tax ratio of 25%, meaning farmers pay property tax on only 25% of the assessed value of their property.
That means the cost of providing the rebate, once shared province-wide, now falls on the non-farm municipal tax base, a policy which hits heavily-agricultural municipalities like Mapleton, and in fact all of Wellington County, hard.
It amounts to a cheap food policy, which benefits all Ontarians, provided free to city dwellers courtesy of their country cousins.
One farmer at the Jan. 14 meeting pointed out that farmland doesn’t generate a need for services provided by urban areas, such as sidewalks and arenas. However that could be countered by the reality urbanites don’t really need a massive web of back roads every mile and a quarter to get where they need to go most of the time.
It’s that kind of debate you don’t want to get too far into, or it becomes difficult to maintain any sense of community.
The answer, which rural municipalities have been requesting for years, is for the province to rethink its blatantly unfair approach to funding the farm tax rebate. Few would complain about the money that goes back to farmers through the rebate, if it were shared more equally across the province.
It’s a discussion that needs to take place, but one that does not seem to be on the current government’s radar.
