Doug Ford has promised that, if elected as mayor on October 27th, he will cut the city’s land transfer tax by 15 per cent each year for the next four years.
He made the promise after attending a meeting with the city’s estate board. He also said he hopes to eventually completely eliminate the tax, which he thinks is unfair and a determent to Toronto’s housing market.
Ford plans to make up the revenue shortfall created by the move by contracting out garbage collection on the city’s east end.
If he is elected in October, Ford is going to have a hard time keeping that promise without raising taxes or finding a new source of revenue. He will also face a challenge convincing the rest of council to follow course. The Land Transfer Tax generates more than $500-million for the city each year, and simply hiring a private company to collect the east end’s garbage won’t make up the difference. [Via CBC]
Image via Flickr user via Andrew Louis.
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Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
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