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If Victoria wanted to reduce property taxes — why that tax, in particular, is anyone’s guess — why not simply give comparable amounts of money directly to municipalities so they could cut property taxes? Of course, then provincial politicians would have nothing to brag about.

When Bennett introduced the grant, the opposition called it unfair and vowed to axe it if elected. They quickly realized that the grant was popular and nixed the idea of killing the program. Over 60 years, successive provincial governments have done nothing but increase the grant and adjust the property value that determines who gets the cash. Even the cutoff isn’t fair — the value of your home has little connection to your ability to pay taxes.

While the grant is no longer linked to one party, it remains partisan because it can be manipulated for political gain by the party in power.

No one should be surprised, therefore, that the Clark government announced last week plans to review the property value cutoff that determines who gets the grant in the wake of this year’s huge jump in assessments. I’ll be stunned if the Liberals don’t announce just before the provincial election in May that more people are eligible for the grant, spun as some kind of “Putting Families First” initiative.

While Bennett may have been looking out for the “little guy” when he created the homeowner grant in the 1950s to encourage the settled, stable life that comes with home ownership, that’s hardly the case now. Increasingly, buying a home, especially in the Lower Mainland, is beyond many families, which weakens any justification that may have once existed for the grant. More broadly based tax relief would be fairer.