Council complains they don’t have enough of your money to spend, and we lack commercial land and jobs. Past councils have allowed properties on Josephine Street (Wingham’s Main Street) to be turned into property tax exempt churches. This deprives the Community of property taxes and greatly reduces the number of businesses that can locate on Josephine, costing us jobs and speeding up development along Hwy 86 that will further decimate our Downtown.
Now you are probably saying to yourself, those poor churches only bring in a few thousand a year, and paying Wingham property taxes will wipe them out. Well, you would be wrong! They bring in millions! Why? Because they are using prime commercial locations, and no one talks about how much money churches suck out of the pockets of the intellectually stunted that believe in a Skyman. A Skyman that is infinitely powerful, all knowing and seeing, but needs to borrow money and will pay you back in the afterlife with prefered cloud seating.
Due to the obscene amount of money sucked out of the pockets our Community’s vulnerable, they should not only pay property taxes, they should be paying income tax. Below are revenue stats for two businesses located on Josephine Street that have combined revenues of $3,579,594 for the last five years on file. It should be noted that ONE of the businesses below does benefit the community by recycling goods, employing several people, turning e-waste into food for the food bank, offering budgeting counselling, etc. The other picks up sticks once a year, usually prior to asking council for something right after a video bragfest.
Wingham Charity Listings at CRA
Maitland River Community Church
2010: $284,910
2011: $286,929
2012: $297,641
2013: $400,757
2014: $428,465
Total: $1,698,702
2011: $390,373
2012: $348,764
2013: $399,055
2014: $361,768
2015: $380,932
Total: $1,880,892
