An elected official first should listen—not just to those who are the loudest, but to all citizens they represent. My duty is to represent every single citizen in the city, not just certain groups. At the , I took that grants special privileges to a very specific group of people. This was a group of people whom I have great respect for, which made it all the more difficult to take a stand on behalf of all taxpayers.
At first glance, the seems like a very good idea. It even has a very noble sounding name and there is no doubt that it's original intent was indeed noble. However, like many government giveaway programs, Canton's senior property tax exemption is a dismal failure. Many of our poorest residents receive zero or minimal benefit while many of our wealthiest residents pay zero or very little property tax.
I have a great respect for seniors and their well-earned retirements. However, homeownership does come with certain ongoing responsibilities that have to be paid for.
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taxes are used only to pay for the day-to-day municipal services such as police and fire protection, streets, bridges, sidewalks, streetlights, parks, curbside debris removal, special events and festivals, etc.
While city revenues continue to shrink (down 22.5 percent last year), the number of households paying zero or very little is rapidly growing (up 8 percent so far this year). One does not have to be an economic expert to see that to continue down this path will ultimately result in the financial collapse of the city.
Because five of the seven city councilmen reap thousands of dollars in financial benefits from this exemption, they are not in a position to make an objective decision. If this exemption is truly what the majority of citizens currently wants, then why not allow all citizens to affirm this by a vote in the general election in November? Why does your city council refuse to allow the citizens to decide this vital issue?
