Yeah, that happens alot in GA.[/QUOTE
Then why even post in a thread when you have no clue.
Another naive post from you. So, if you expect the city to shovel the sidewalk for you, do you expect the city to hire more people to do this in timely fashion? Most cities budget $ millions just for street plowing, let's double/triple that now.
Fortunately, most property owners would rather shovel their sidewalks then deal with higher taxes.
My city does it just fine. It's called snow removal equipment. They have the graders for the streets, the faster pace dump truck style plows for highways, the mini plows for sidewalks, the giant snow blower to clear the snow banks when they get too big, and they even have a small snow blower to do the sidewalks after a blizzard. It's all about being prepared. We don't pay thousands of dollars in taxes for nothing. That money better come back to serve us one way or the other.
There is only so much snow renoval capacity you contract for. And when the snow is bigger than that, and you want to get out of the snow in any sort of timely manner, you get help. In that particular case, the Army.
Mel Lastman will never live that one down.
Who's gona forget that? Noooooo-body!:awe:
Hey, at one point they even called in the army, 'cuz they weren't doing anything, to shovel the snow. Now thats service my friend.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/1999/01/14/snow990114.html
Maybe this is just an American perspective, but we tend not to want to see our uniformed servicemen doing things like this. Yeah, we might call in the guard after an extraordinary event like Katrina, since these guys are trained better than anyone to go into the shit and operate, but shoveling snow?
Kind of a slap in the face in light of all of the hard work and training they go through, isn't it?
I should mention I live in a city with services that I'd put up against any other in the US and only 0.86% on my property tax bill. Yeah, I'll go ahead and shovel my own sidewalk for taxes that low. That's a pretty good rate considering the strength of our schools, stable property values, road conditions, access to the metro/proximity to DC. I lived in Jersey, I know all about high tax bills with comparatively little to show for it.
I'd prefer not to socialize every little thing and pay a tax bill that is commensurate. Our main roads were being plowed 24 hrs a day throughout the storm, they hit our residential streets right after the snow stopped. Fair bargain.
Canada's a whole other story. Honestly, what is your effective tax rate? For that, they should shovel your sidewalks.
Income Tax - 15.2%
Property Tax - 0.7%
We shovel our own sidewalks, city does the streets. The city plows sidewalks that aren't in front of peoples houses.
Don't you also pay a consumption tax or two? Something tells me 15.9% in taxes doesn't pay for the government services offered up there.
5% Sales Tax. No provincial sales tax in my province.
Well shit, that's a bargain.
Do you pay for a lot of it through depressed wages (ie. high corporate taxation), or are you seriously paying less than a 25% effective rate?
I mean, I have a fairly sizeable mortgage with lots of interest to deduct, but I still manage to pay a quarter of my income to taxes. That's before factoring in our 4.5% sales tax and whatever hidden taxes I pay on other things. I'd say gas, but I rarely drive.
This thread is now about waffles.. err, taxes?
I don't think so, but it's hard to compare wages across countries. I've always read our corporate taxes are very competitive though.
We can't deduct interest on our mortgages like the US. However your principal residence is exempt from any capital gains. We can also deduct 100% of tuition and books for college
We don't pay cap gains if we live in the place for 2 out of the last 5 years as a principal residence, I think. There might also be a ceiling on the exemption, but I know we'd be nowhere near it. We can deduct tuition and books and student loan interest, both subject to an income cap. However, there is a lifetime learning credit of up to $2000 (maybe 2500?) per year for qualifying tuition payments up to $12k. Can't double-dip, so usually the credit is our best route.
The mortgage interest deduction makes things interesting (see what I did there?). Our effective tax rates might be right about the same, factoring in the % of my income that was paid to mortgage interest that I was able to deduct.
I'm just surprised at my own ignorance. I was under the impression that most of Canada had very high taxes. Is it only a couple of provinces that are like that?
if i lived in a snow state and they told me i had to shovel the public sidewalk, i'd probably ice it down just for spite. fuck that shit.
I don't get what all the bitching is for. How could it take you any longer than 15 minutes to clear your sidewalk?
Even with 2 feet of snow on the ground it only took me 10 minutes to clear the sidewalk. It took another hour to clear the driveway, but that's the driveway.
Maybe this is just an American perspective, but we tend not to want to see our uniformed servicemen doing things like this. Yeah, we might call in the guard after an extraordinary event like Katrina, since these guys are trained better than anyone to go into the shit and operate, but shoveling snow?
Kind of a slap in the face in light of all of the hard work and training they go through, isn't it?