CambridgeToday received the following letter concerning how much of a tax increase local residents are willing to accept.
The city website states that Mayor (Jan) Liggett will be leading the 2025 Budget and Business Plan process.
In the release, Mayor Liggett was quoted as saying “I have invited council members to share feedback and ideas directly as they are hearing it from their communities, and to meet with me individually to create a budget that reflects the many voices from every area of our city. I will be working to bring everyone together around this and will be providing regular updates on how to get involved.”
We at the Property Taxpayers Alliance feel this approach is highly commendable. In support of your undertaking, in which councillors are being asked to find out what their ward residents would like to see, we draw your attentions to a statistically significant Cambridge community satisfaction survey that was completed in 2022 by Deloitte, a highly reputable accounting firm.
Unlike the Engage Cambridge surveys done by the city each year, which have no statistical significance or credibility, the Deloitte survey results represented what Cambridge tax paying residents wanted to within a maximum margin of error of +/- 4.9 per cent with a 95 per cent confidence interval.
This means that the survey results indicated with virtual certainty what the vast majority of Cambridge property owners wanted done with their hard-earned tax dollars. The survey results were weighted to the exact proportions of the populations by age, gender and ward (Census 2016 Statistics Canada).
The phone survey showed that 73 per cent of respondents wanted yearly property taxes to rise no more than inflation, and less even if services had to be cut. See page 24 of the attached Deloitte phone survey (email [email protected] for a copy).
The on-line survey showed that 71 per cent of respondents wanted yearly property taxes to rise no more than inflation, and less even if services had to be cut. See page 23 of the attached Deloitte on-line survey email [email protected] for a copy).
I can assure you that in the two short years from 2022 to 2024, the Deloitte findings will have changed very little. And if they have changed, it is far more likely that they have actually increased percentage-wise (due to public angst over recent property tax increases of two and three times inflation).
Shockingly, the Deloitte survey results were swept under the rug by the city and not even mentioned in the 2022 Budget and Business Plan document. Instead, meaningless Engage Cambridge survey results based on just 133 questionable respondents were presented with the city concluding that 66 per cent of respondents supported tax increases at or above inflation.
How could the very costly statistically significant Deloitte survey results showing over 70 per cent wanted tax increases at or below inflation be displaced in the 2022 Budget and Business Plan document with meaningless Engage Cambridge survey results saying 66 per cent supported tax increases at or above inflation? This is simply shocking.
Mayor and councillors would you please give serious consideration to the Deloitte survey findings. They can't possibly be ignored if you sincerely want to know what Cambridge residents are asking you for.
John B. Waylett
Chair and CEO
Property Taxpayers Alliance
