At last night's WL Council meeting during consideration of the 2013 Budget/2013-17 5 Year Financial Plan - Williams Lake City Councillor Surinderpal Rathor challenged his colleagues, after telling them that he would vote in favour of this year's budget - the first time since Kerry Cook became Mayor of Williams Lake in late December 2008, to a 0% budget.
He admitted that it'll be tough to do for 2014 but he said it could be done if everyone (Council, Staff and the community) was up for the challenge. However, Councillor Zacharias fired back saying that a 0% tax increase in 2014 was irresponsible and that people need to save their money. Remember, she said the same thing just a short couple of years ago.
For myself - I think that Councillor Rathor is right that a 0% tax increase is going to be a monumental task in 2014 but I wonder if we are sacrificing tomorrow by addressing our needs today (ie: are we creating a bigger problem - infrastructure wise down the road, etc). I think a good tax increase planning goal of 2% (roughly inflation) is a good goal to shoot for as it should allow taxes to stay steady at today's rates (but keeping in mind that property assessment by BC Assessment has a lot to do with how much you pay WL City Hall every year in property taxes)
Meanwhile - I think it is important to remember that elected officials serve the public & do their bidding and not pontificate to the public
SBF
2 comments:
Get educated Steve. Saying "I think a good tax increase planning goal of 2%(roughly inflation) is a good goal to shoot for as it should allow taxes to stay steady at today's rates" is like little school kids saying "I like pink because my friends like pink, so lets paint everything pink."
Choosing a tax target is a fact based, emphasize FACT based, exercise. Decades long negligence has created the infrastructure deficit/debt, which is bigger than the national debt truth be known. Choosing a zero tax increase is foolishness and only pays the burden forward to our children so some of today's idiot politician can bask in their self imposed glory of being a cheapskate. We have a national infrastructure that is the envy of the world. It costs money to build, but it costs far more to maintain over its life. If we want to waste many useable years of that infrastructure, the perfect solution is to go with a zero tax increase. If we want to GUESS at the real need to support our infrastructure based economy, then GUESSING AND USING AN INFLATION BASED TAX INCREASE is just as ignorant and stupid.
We have a service level we seem to enjoy and it comes with a price, and that price is based on real world realities. If we want to maintain those service levels, we have to be willing to pay realistic prices. If not, then go bury your head up your butt, vote for zero or vote for inflation so you can be popular, and prepare for the inevitable decline and collapse of our standards of service.....or alternatively, adjust the standards of service to reflect what zero or inflation based increases will buy. Only an ostrich will not understand this.
Perhaps if the spent the tax money on infrastructure instead of dog parks, new staff positions and other useless crap people would not be so opposed. Over the past few years tax increases have been substantial and I don't see the roads being fixed. All I see if monstrous city owned buildings, wage increases and fluff.
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