Dear Editor:
Re: Not the kind of ‘pay it forward’ we like, Burnaby NOW, Our View. Dec. 16.
“Let’s take a step back and look at this realistically. Why should people sitting on $1.3 million properties get help from the government?”
The writer seems to begrudging us seniors because of our "good luck."
I bought my property, which was only accessible via a gravel road at the time of purchase, half a century ago, for the price of a year's earnings. I built my present home, a well-designed modest one, for three years' earnings. The government did not help me. I paid property taxes like every other homeowner and no other taxpayer subsidized me.
I am all for helping needy people, as the writer mentioned, and I have done that (homeless people do not pay property taxes so they cannot subsidize me either).
The taxes after the present assessment of my property are now so high that I might not be able to pay them from my pension income and could not afford to keep my living standard and live in my beloved home any longer. Fortunately I can defer my property taxes until I sell my home, and there the government helps me that I still can enjoy my home and its environment until I die or may have to go to assisted living accommodations.
I hope the writer has some leniency and compassion with us "wealthy" pensioners.
Helmut Lemke, North Burnaby
