As everything else moves online, should property tax and utility bills follow suit?
That’s the question city councillors in Kitchener grappled with Monday afternoon.
It’s a question spurred on by outside forces.
City staff estimate that increases to stamp prices will cost the city an extra $93,000 per year to send out paper copies of all its tax and utility bills.
For this year, that’s what will happen – but councillors asked for ways to implement online billing for the 2015 budget.
That could mean offering the option of paperless billing, or making it mandatory – the latter an option with which Coun. Yvonne Fernandes took issue.
“I’m very concerned about the percentage of residents who are very leery of anything coming out of a computer, or don’t have a computer,” she said.
Coun. Scott Davey asked about “grandfathering” current residents into the policy so that newcomers would have no choice but to go paperless.
“If someone’s getting a paper bill now … they don’t have that option anymore, they have to move exclusively to the electronic system,” he suggested.
As councillors continued their debate, Jean Galbraith was one floor below, paying her property tax bill.
Although she “pays almost every other thing online,” Galbraith says “the big bills” – like property tax – are too important to trust to a solely electronic source.
“I know everything’s moving in electronic directions, but for me it’s very reassuring to have that paper copy,” she said.
Another idea floated by councillors was offering a rebate in exchange for signing up for electronic bills.
