The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

th whwrawn htmiothuiwlt hm of 7 the 4060 ratio there is a lot of talk about a 4060 ratio but 4060 is not a magic number to solve all municioal promems t is a formula or rule of thumb suggested as the ideal proportion of commercial and industrial assessment to residen tial assessment where there are only modest homes of low assessment then it is necessqry to have about 40 per cent of the assess ment coming from business and industrial properties that is a 4060 ratio but the residentialindustrial assessment ratio may have little bearing on the tax rate take the 25 ontario towns of comparable population 7000 to 15000 population the assessment ratio varied in these towns as of january 1st from 6040 hawkesbury to 1 585 richmond hill yet hawkesburys tax rate was almost identical to georgetowns and richmond hills was consi derably lower forest hill with a 1090 ratio has one of the lowest tax rates in ontario moreover georgetowns 1959 mill rate is almost exactly the average for the 25 similar sized towns s industrial residential georgetown 630 mills 610 mills average for 25 ontario towns 647 mills 600 mills georgetown is neither all modest homes nor is it a forest hill village some older homes have low assesment val ue many old and new houses alike are near the breakeven point an assessment producing sufficient tax mon ey to pay for the occupants needs and we have substantial homes in all sections of town which more than pay their way aiming for a 4060 ratib here we must not lose sight of these fundamental facts a above a certain assessment somewhere around 5000 more or less in georgetown a home pays its ivay and does not need industrial assessment to balance it off such homes should not be counted in calculating the tatio nor should vacant land which costs the municipality nothing to service and yet produces taxes to be counted as a residential charge b commercial assessment is as benefic csllar for dollar as industrial assessment big new industries are dramatic news but lets not lose sight of the growing business community c new businesses depend on a growing population to patronize them new industries need a working force and the working force must be housed now what does all this have to do with delrex a great deal and each of the following statements can be confirmed readily by consulting the records in georgetown municipal offices delrex did not create georgetowns assessment ratio the ideal 4158 ratio of industrial to resi dential assessment dropped to 2871 between september 30 1954 and september 30 1955 by that later date delrex hod not completed a single home in georgetown since september 1955 the residential assessment here has increased just four per cent and while delrex brought in substantial industrial and commercial assessment to offset the rising residential assessment other developers attracted no new industries and were never obliged to do so between january 1955 and june 1957 alone georgetown allowed establishment of approxi mately 2500000 worth of new residential assessment outside the delrex area during this same period delrex created 690000 worth of residential assessment of 1513000 total assessment created by delrex in the january 1955 june 1957 period only 40 per cent was houses the average assessment of all 926 homes in delrex is approximately 4335 this is 785 high er than the average assessment for all georgetown homes delrex got no special privilege in the release of its original 188 acres every subdivider has been allowed by georgetown council to develop his lands without regard to the assessment ratio up to september 7th this year delrex voluntarily assumed leadership for attracting industry despite the lack of commitment delrex got no preferential treatment in me release of the second section of its development last ear delrex guaranteed to maintain the 4060 ratio on this second phase by securing the addi tional industry or paying the difference in cash delrex is paying taxes on some 5o0o0ttassessment of vacant land property that neither sends children to school nor requires one cents worthpf servicing this includes 375 acres of serviced industrial sites which are classified as residential assessment in calculating the ratio i 8 because we are taxpayers too delrex would like to see lower taxes because a higher assessment will reduce taxes and because we have industrial sites to sell delrex aims for the 4o60 ratio but delrex did not create the imbalance defrex has neither asked nor received preferential treatment delrex is an integral part of george town it must be treated as such delrex developments limited