Moose FM CHMS 97.7 - Bancroft

Sitting in the Eagle's Nest diner the other day, one of the morning regulars asked me if I had seen the front page of the Bancroft Times where, above the fold, was an architect's rendition of the new Hastings-Highlands community complex.

“Your tax bill's going to be a honey,” he said.

To which I replied, “What else is new?”

If you live on a lake in Hastings-Highlands, whether it be a modest cabin or a posh home, you get no mercy from the local tax man.

You are its cash cow — with or without an extraordinary community centre flaunting itself on the front page of the local newspaper.

That's always been the case, even as that case worsens with a spending frenzy that councilors argue  is a one-off chance to grab recession-buffering money from higher governments.

If you don't like it, and feel like your protests fall on deaf ears, there's a highway heading out of town.

Me? I hope it all works out, and that I am not saddled to my death with property taxes that become more and more debilitating. Time will tell.

One thing, though, is certain. Gone is the day that Hastings-Highlands would ever consider an amalgamation with Bancroft — not with the jewel of Bird's Creek being the prime locale for future development, all which Bancroft covets.

There is, after all, a new facility to pay off.

Commercial taxpayers are therefore in dire need.

And the time has come to woe them.