Quote:
Originally Posted by racc
Many businesses in the region do not have on-street parking for their customers and have to provide, at great expense, off-street parking. They even have to pay property tax on this parking space. Why should a few businesses expect that the city should always provide public space for parking. In a sense, the city is providing these businesses with a subsidy that other businesses do not get. Now that the businesses themselves have provided the city with the value of that space, maybe the city should start charging them for the on-street parking in front of their businesses. Then, if the city decides to use that space for something else, the businesses would not have to pay anymore.
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Huh?
The city is not subsidizing business for thing. It's the other way around. Vancouver has a commercial to residential property tax ratio of 4.42 to 1. Despite comprising less than 25% of the city's assessment base, business shoulders 50% of the city's total tax levy. Thus, it is
business that is subsidizing residential property owners (and renters) for the public services they recieve. In other words, not only are businesses already paying for parking outside of their own premises, they are paying for parking outside of residential homes as well. If some businesses receive street-side parking while other businesses do not, that just means the former are getting slightly less hosed than the latter, not that the city is subsidizing them.
But maybe I missed your point.