Last week was a big one down at city hall with two bombshell Auditor General audits as well as a cricket debate, and parking fare increase. All of that is in the first half of the show.

In the back half of the show host Matt Stickland breaks down the story Fillmore is trying to tell about how being invesitaged by the RCMP is all a big misunderstanding.

In an administrative note, there will be no paper next week and we are blaming Canada Day for this.

In this week's episode of the show host Matt Stickland breaks down what went down at last Tuesday's council meeting. Then, after an ad break, Matt explains Fillmore's upcoming office expense scandal.

Sorry for the yelling and swearing. Turn down your volume. The next book club meeting is July 12 at 2 p.m. at MacDonald House on Lawrencetown Road.

This is a research deep dive episode where host Matt Stickland goes into the weeds to explain how low property taxes make housing less affordable. Did Matt get anything wrong? Here are his sources:

Oates (1969): the effects of property taxes and local public spending on property values

Mieszkowski (1972): The property tax: an excise tax or a profits tax?

Oats & Schwab (2009): The case for a land value tax

Dye & England (2010) Assessing the theory and practice of land value taxation

Bourassa (1990): The land value tax and housing development: A case study of Pittsburgh

Tideman (1994): The Economics of Efficient taxes on land

Palmon & Smith (1998): New evidence on property tax capitalization

Lyu (2024): Revisiting property tax capitalization

Hilber (2017): The economic implications of the house price capitalization: a synthesis

Hull & Grodecka-Messi (2022): Measuring the impact of taxes and public services on property values: A double machine learning approach

Charlot, Paty & Visalli (2013): Assessing the impact of local taxation on property prices: A spactia matching contribution

Plassmann & Tideman (2000): A markov chain monte carlo analysis of the effect of two rate property taxes on construction

Bruekner (1986): The structure of urban equilibria: A unified treatment of the Muth-Mills Model

England & Zhao (2005): Assessing the distributive effects of a revenue-neutral shift from property tax to a land value tax

Hartzok (1997): Pennsylvania’s Success with local property tax reform: The Split-Rate Tax

Banzhaf & Lavery (2010): Can the land value tax be used to rejuvenate our cities? Development charge studies

Singell & Lillydahl (1990): An Empirical Examination of the Effect of Impact Fees on the Price of New Real Estate.

Ihlanfeldt & Shaughnessy (2004): An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Impact Fees on Housing and Land Prices.

Dachis (2018/2024): Gimme Shelter: How High Municipal Housing Charges and Taxes Decrease Housing Supply.

Skidmore & Peddle (1998): Do Development Impact Fees Reduce the Rate of Residential Development?

Burge & Ihlanfeldt (2006): Impact Fees and Single-Family Home Construction.

CMHC (2025): Development Charges: Who Bears the Cost?

Dresch & Sheffrin (1997): Who Pays, and When? An Assessment of Generational Equity in the Case of Development Fees.

Evans-Cowley & Lawhon (2003): The Effects of Impact Fees on Land Values and Development.

Been (2005): Impact Fees and Housing Affordability

And the Not Just Bikes video

https://youtu.be/r7-e_yhEzIw?si=QG7OBmInRzzqZFpB

Very sorry about the lack of show notes here. Personal life being what it was this past week proper show notes will be added (maybe). No one expects show notes from analog radio. This double standard is unfair! Or I'm just tired. Enjoy the show tho.

In this episode, host Matt Stickland goes deep on property tax policies and is forced to confront the fact that two of his long-held beliefs are, in fact, wrong.

And a bit about last week's community planning and economic development standing committee meeting from last week.

You can take Halifax's road safety survey right here, if you want: https://www.halifax.ca/home/surveys

I can't rememeber what else I said I'd link in the show notes. I'm honestly not even sure I said I'd link this road safety survey.

A slow week at city hall, but a big week for the podcast, as the Grand Parade is now (or will be on June 20) an award-winning podcast!

But you can check out the BOPC presentation referenced here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq1QnNoiTCg

And you can provide feedback to them (after listening to that presenation) here: police.modernization@novascotia.ca

And the book club book is this one: www.stopbigcar.com