Hello all:
Earlier this week, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business released a report on "out-of-control" spending by BC local governments. In this report, they suggest that spending by municipal governments is double that of inflation and population growth. Now, I know my fellow "blogger" Langley Township Councillor Jordan Bateman reads my blog regularly and is likely to agree with me that municipal government spending isn't really out of control as opposed to municipal governments spending money on services/infrastructure that residents want. Here in Williams Lake, RCMP costs cover about 30% of the City of Williams Lake's budget and the rest goes towards other services that people expect including Recreation Services, improvements to infrastructure, and so on. While I appreciate the opinion of the CFIB, I don't think they appreciate the voters' appetite for basic services (fire, police, etc) in their local communities. I'm sure Councillor Bateman has been approached by Langley Township residents for many requests, but as the old saying goes, "There is one taxpayer and he/she has so much money to give to governments". The challenge here is how to wean municipal governments off of relying on property taxes for a substantive majority of their budgets. This is especially true in Metro Vancouver communities where demand for services including transit is high.
2 comments:
You're on the right track, Steve. In fact, I made this comment in one of my posts where the study came up yesterday:
I'll be doing a more in-depth blog on the weekend, Herb, but here's a thought. Every single municipality in the Lower Mainland (except Vancouver) has a minimum 3.5% tax increase this year. And every single municipality is in the same boat on the study referenced--tax rates increasing at a rate faster than growth and inflation. Meanwhile Ottawa and Victoria cut taxes and still sit on billion dollar surpluses. Perhaps that's a sign that every single municipality in the region is underfunded and/or the victim of more and more provincial and federal downloading. I find it difficult to believe that every single Council--whether they be lefties like New West and Burnaby, or righties like Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey--in the region is jacking up taxes just for the heck of it. Maybe, just maybe, we should all cast oru minds to the thought that the way we fund cities in this country is broken and needs to change.
I agree with both of to a point.
I believe this report was to en-lighted the amount of increases municipalities, especially within the lower mainland, have been increasing their operating budgets. For example have the greens crew of the city union been recieved a 40% increase like the RCMP in their pay over the past 6 years. I believe this whole spotlight is to open our minds to ask our mayor's and councellors which departments are they giving increases in pay greater than inflation and pop. growth. As a tax payer, either residential or business understand where are my $ that are being also downloaded from the fed and pro governments to the muni with going and I get to see that with the budget release in Feb and Mar but do I get that with my muni. I would like a say on whether I agree with that spending.
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