{"id":789,"date":"2026-07-18T19:22:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T23:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=789"},"modified":"2026-07-18T21:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T01:13:50","slug":"do-taxpayers-get-equal-benefit-for-their-property-taxes-across-the-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"Do taxpayers get equal benefit for their property taxes across the County?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

High level analysis of County budgets of the past 5 years shows me that there is some inequity across the County in where expenditures are incurred and from where property taxes are collected. In principle, all residents have equal access to services funded by property taxes (e.g. garbage collection, OPP, Paramedic services, road maintenance, parks and rec) but economies of scale that are available in urban communities are not always available in rural communities. Our rural communities are wide spread, cover an area of 820 sq km whereas our urban communities are compact and cover only about 20 sq km. This leads to rural communities requiring disproportionately more expenditure relative to property taxes collected from those communities to provide the same services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 property taxes will come approximately 54% from urban areas and 46% from rural, and looking forward that split will grow towards 60:40 by 2051 (the end date of our current Official Plan), primarily because of further residential and employment growth in Paris and St George and extensive future industrial development in the 403 corridor in the Paris settlement area (see graphs below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the next 10 years we are forecasting to spend more than $800 mln in capital projects. Excluding the nearly $ 250 mln that will be spent on the St George Wastewater treatment facility and the Expansion of the Paris Waste Water Treatment Facilty as these will be primarily funded by Development Charges, grants and via the rate based structure (and not through the property tax levy) that will  leave $550 mln. The biggest share of that $550 mln is for roads, bridges and culverts at almost $280 mln and Parks and Rec at $ 135 mln. The balance covers emergency services, library, and other smaller calls on spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of capital expenditure is in Paris as it grows but much of the infrastructure capital expenditure is funded through DCs (Development Charges – levied on new residential and industrial projects) or grants from higher levels of Government and not through property taxes. Once the expanded wastewater treatment plant is underway St George will similarly see a lot of DC funded infrastructure investment. The balance of the County, essentially the rural area, will not see significant residential or industrial development because growth is mandated by the Province to be primarily focused on settlement areas that are or will be municipally serviced (Paris\/St George\/Cainsville).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a consequence rural areas receive a disproportionally larger share of operating expenditures funded by property taxes – e.g. 80% of the County road system (and related maintenance costs) is in rural areas and garbage collection costs for rural areas are estimated at 2x the costs for collection in urban areas. And, excluding the water\/wastewater capital expenditure, 2\/3 of the largest capital budget line (roads, bridges, culverts) is spent in rural areas. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So conversations that often go too quickly to \u201cParis gets everything\u201d need to be more nuanced – the facts do not support that conclusion. The inequality (of where expenditures are incurred and from where  property taxes are collected) is, I conclude, in favour of rural communities. Despite that I believe it is not an unreasonable price to pay to ensure the continuing vitality, function, connectivity, unity and character of our entire County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

High level analysis of County budgets of the past 5 years shows me that there is some inequity across the County in where expenditures are incurred and from where property taxes are collected. In principle, all residents have equal access to services funded by property taxes (e.g. garbage collection, OPP, Paramedic services, road maintenance, parks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224916146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pebGxL-cJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":717,"url":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=717","url_meta":{"origin":789,"position":0},"title":"Public Input and Municipal Decision Making","author":"johnbellward3","date":"July 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mayor and Council are elected by you, the community - a key role that the Mayor and Council play is in making decisions on behalf of the community. Those decisions are supported and underpinned by staff recommendations, relevant facts, experience of other municipalities, relevant legislation and regulation, their own\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":880,"url":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=880","url_meta":{"origin":789,"position":1},"title":"LEADERSHIP OF THE COUNTY","author":"johnbellward3","date":"July 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Leadership - the ability of an individual or organization to influence, guide, and inspire others toward a common goal. Is leadership of our County the singular responsibility of one person, the Mayor, or is it shared by Council as a whole ? 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Marc gives a great summary of what was achieved during this term of Council. Enjoy your break from politics Marc. \u201cWishing these three (John Bell, Steve Howes and John Peirce - his fellow Paris Councillors) luck\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":917,"url":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=917","url_meta":{"origin":789,"position":3},"title":"\u201dCouncil sets the course, staff row the boat\u201d","author":"johnbellward3","date":"July 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"As we progress towards the end of the early stages of the Municipal Election cycle it\u2019s useful to remind candidates and voters what a Mayor and Council are elected to do. 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We are blessed in Paris, St George and Ayr to have the PrimaCare Community Family Health Team (PCCFHT) and an associated group of family doctors. And yet, still, there are people in our\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnbellward3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnbellward3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnbellward3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnbellward3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/?p=124","url_meta":{"origin":789,"position":5},"title":"My Meet the Candidates remarks","author":"johnbellward3","date":"October 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks Chamber and thanks WI and thanks to you for coming this evening I retired from my Oil Industry Project Management\u00a0career in 2009 and since then the County has been home for Audrey and I and our close family. I have been a Ward 3 Councillor since 2018,\u00a0and for 4\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/224916146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbellward3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}