{"id":10268,"date":"2015-04-01T17:50:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T21:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10268"},"modified":"2015-04-16T00:20:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T04:20:34","slug":"politics-as-usual-a-d-c-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-a-d-c-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: A D.C. Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a lot of comments about my column last month on budgets at the municipal or regional level. Though I had lots of positive feedback (and thanks for those), I did have one reader who was not too pleased with the column. In fact, he leveled some rather pointed criticism in my direction.
\nThe reader took issue with my comments about DCs (Development Charges). Specifically, he indicated that defining DCs as taxpayer money is not accurate.
\nRather than react defensively, I considered his arguments within the context of my own. Looking objectively, I can say that the reader has a point. My argument about DCs was overly simplistic. In pursuit of making my point \u2013 that ALL money in the municipal coffers is tax payer money (which it is!) \u2013 I perhaps over-generalized and neglected to mention the finer points of the collection and use of DCs.
\nSo, let me flesh out my previous statements a bit.
\nFirst, let\u2019s discuss what DCs are and what they aren\u2019t.
\nAccording to AMO, \u201cDevelopment charges are fees collected from developers at the time a building permit is issued. The fees help pay for the cost of infrastructure required to provide municipal services to new development. Most municipalities in Ontario use development charges to ensure that the cost of providing infrastructure to service new development is not borne by existing residents\u2026 in the form of higher property taxes.\u201d
\nIn other words, DCs are collected to prevent existing residents from having to pay for the service needs of future residents through increased taxes.
\nAMO further states that municipalities do not have to charge DCs. They also don\u2019t have to levy for all developments. Some areas of Town can be exempt. There are other options to recoup future infrastructure costs. Regardless of other options available though, most municipalities have opted to levy these fees as it is an effective way to fund growth-related capital costs.
\nDCs that are collected are put in reserve funds. The funds are \u201cencumbered\u201d; they can only be used for set purposes (roads, sewers etc.). The fees cannot be used for operating costs, or future repair\/rehabilitation costs. In other words, the DC reserve is not a slush fund.
\nThe reader insists then that as it is the developer that has to pay the fees, then it is the developers money not the taxpayer\u2019s; that if we had to give it back, we\u2019d have to give it back to the developer. Personally, I think that\u2019s an oversimplification of the transaction, but we can agree to disagree on that one. To his main point, the reader is right, but only partially right.
\nThe developers do pay the fees, but they pass on those fees to new homeowners by including them in the purchase price of new houses. So one could argue that DCs are, in fact, taxpayer money \u2013 new taxpayer money \u2013 as they are the ones footing the bill for the fees incurred \u2013 one way or another.
\nIn fact, according to the Fraser Institute, \u201c\u2026the idea of making developers pay for new infrastructure through DC fees in an attractive but misleading option\u2026(residents) will ultimately pay indirectly for infrastructure through higher property tax assessments and home prices.\u201d
\nSo the taxpayer pays, somehow, somewhere, someday.
\nWhich brings me back to my original point. While we can quibble about how monies end up in the municipal treasury, in the end, all municipal money, is ultimately taxpayer money.
\nUntil next week, stay informed stay involved because this is \u2013 after all \u2013 Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas I had a lot of comments about my column last month on budgets at the municipal or regional level. Though I had lots of positive feedback (and thanks for those), I did have one reader who was not too pleased with the column. In fact, he leveled some rather pointed criticism in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2FC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 00:20:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}