City’s Independent Economic Analysis Of Billboard Tax Says Proposed Tax Represents Less Than 7% of Industry Revenues
The City of Toronto has released an independent economic analysis of the proposed Billboard Tax, conducted by Professor David Amborski of Ryerson University.
The economic analysis concludes that the proposed billboard tax represents “less than 7% (on average) of estimated annual gross revenue” for Toronto’s billboard industry.
That comes from page 9 of this report [PDF]:
The most interesting part of Professor David Amborski’s analysis is when, on page 22, he rips to shreds OMAC’s economic analysis [PDF] of the tax conducted by Altus Group.
David Amborski states that the Altus report, which OMAC has distributed to City Councillors, and which OMAC relies upon to conclude that the tax is unfair, “is not reflective of the actual third-party sign tax that is being proposed by the City.” Furthermore, The Altus report “provides little empirical data, and relies almost exclusively on one source for the information used within the report.”
In the meantime, the billboard industry has countered with billboards based on the Altus report’s false reasoning, such as this one at a quiet section Lower Sherbourne Street, south of Front Street East:
The have, however, cleaned up CityBillboardTax.ca into something a little more polished than original, yet packed with the same lies.
