When you get around to paying your municipal property taxes this year, you’re bound to get a bad case of sticker shock.

But Phil Hochstein thinks you should also get good and angry — at the bloated salaries and benefits paid to municipal employees, which in turn inflate your tax bill.

“Municipal governments have turned into Robin Hood in reverse — they’re stealing from the poor to give to the rich,” said Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C.

“And the rich are getting richer!”

http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/Municipal+wages+cent+higher+than+private+sector+Report/6838692/story.html

ICBA president Philip Hochstein is on the mark when he sums it up: “These gold-plated pay and perk packages are the main reason why city hall never turns around to tell you your taxes are going down.

“What’s unfair about the situation is you’re being asked to send more money to the taxman off your paycheque to subsidize increases so civic workers can get pay and pension richer than yours.”

http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/opinion/162654226.html

When you get around to paying your municipal property taxes this year, you’re bound to get a bad case of sticker shock.

But Phil Hochstein thinks you should also get good and angry — at the bloated salaries and benefits paid to municipal employees, which in turn inflate your tax bill.

“Municipal governments have turned into Robin Hood in reverse — they’re stealing from the poor to give to the rich,” said Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C.

“And the rich are getting richer!”

http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/Municipal+wages+cent+higher+than+private+sector+Report/6838692/story.html

ICBA president Philip Hochstein is on the mark when he sums it up: “These gold-plated pay and perk packages are the main reason why city hall never turns around to tell you your taxes are going down.

“What’s unfair about the situation is you’re being asked to send more money to the taxman off your paycheque to subsidize increases so civic workers can get pay and pension richer than yours.”

http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/opinion/162654226.html

Lower mainland real estate blog

http://vancouvercondo.info/

Ride safe everyone and enjoy this long weekend . And to everyone in cars please watch for motorcycles . Loud pipes save lives.

In Red Deer this past week. Highways, streets, roads and boulavards edges all mowed flush green grass. Hardly a sign of any potholes. New malls and buildings spread out throughout the city. No garbage blowing around in the streets. Gas is 109.9 at most stations Costco is 105.9 for members. No PST and home owner taxes are reasonable. Can’t wait to get home.

Ben:
Loved your opinion article on the PGX, hope the Mayor and Council wake up.

Charles, I think that if you are concerned about your city taxes you should pay them on time to avoid the interest penalty. I also wonder how much taxpayer money flows into the coffers of the members of the ICBA? Or do ICBA members offer a “Taxpayer Funded Project” discount? Different pig with it’s snout in the same trough.

How true acrider54. Spent part of last winter in Arizona and all was clean, neat, and tidy even though the US economy is supposed to be in much worse shape than Canada’s.
Prince George’s visual appeal is on par with the city dump.

Ditto Slim2229…wonderful opinion article Ben!!!!

Do you climb the cut banks on the Nechako River? Please park in the parking area beside McMillen Creek, and not along side the pulpmill road.

While it isn’t posted ‘no parking’ your parking your car and trucks in the bicycle lane and creating a road hazard.

Great article on PGX Ben. But you do realize Mayor Photo Opp will be there with her fake happy goin’ on.

HarleyGuy…. bright orange vests save lives too, and make for a more peaceful long weekend.

Loved the story in the newspaper about the gentleman who presented his plan for a downtown plaza to city hall! The pdf file picture of the plaza concept shows what the plaza may look like if approved by the city brass! Wonderful! According to the story he was not successful in getting a sympathetic response! Is that surprising? No, not to me! This city is stuck in a rut of paleolithic thinking and attitudes, in my opinion and I speak from experience.

In all my years of travelling abroad I have never come across a town or city which had no heart, meaning a central plaza! Most cities in Canada have one too!
Prince George – a fat goose egg zero!

Not only is Prince George famous for some of the things it does have – potholes, weed filled ditches and so forth – but it may get some more reknown for what it does not have!

FYI: Locals love it, take pride in it and the first thing visitors usually head for is a lively downtown, with its beautiful plaza, surrounded by cafes, bistros, little shops, gourmet foods, souvenir shops, art exhibits, outdoor patios…benches, a fountain…ah well, enough already.

I agree with others, good article on the PGX. And a good decision to not allow comments on it… you’d just get the usual partisan bickering.

No comments sections in the PGX story? Someone must be worried Pat and Shirley will get bad mouthed?? ;-)

Acrider54~we were in Edmonton in June and noticed the same thing….sure makes a good first impression when you enter a city and see things are all nice neat and tidy. They even mow the ditches in the residental subdivisions there!!

“Loud pipes saves lives.” How about “Defensive driving skills saves lives.”

Harleyguy- If you think that by making obscene amounts of exhaust noise will keep you safer on the roads, then you are a meathead. With that kind of mindset, then everyone who rides a bicycle should go around yelling at the top of their lungs… Yep, that should make them safer too!

Why do so many people complain about the downfalls of Prince George? Sit back and think why you are here? If you are that miserable here then leave it will make more room for so many people that enjoy it here! There are so many things to be thankful here that you dont have anywhere else. I grew up in the big city and would not change it for anything: those hour and half drives to and from work everyday, the traffic, the accidents and i could go on and one. Here we are an hour drive if that from many beautiful lakes and fishing and outdoor recreation is endless. we do lack from the indoor activities a little for cold winter months but just the beautiful scenery and wildlife. I wouldnt change it for the world. OH and not to mention the gas prices parking prices ext in the city. NO THANK YOU. Just sit back and be thankful for what you do have not what you dont have and dont like. there are issues everywhere you go but ditch the negativity and welcome the positive things and you have a whole new outlook! Its called life and it was not meant to be easy or it wouldnt be a journey.

Have a great long weekend!

““Municipal governments have turned into Robin Hood in reverse — they’re stealing from the poor to give to the rich,” said Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of BC . . . ICBA president Philip Hochstein is on the mark when he sums it up: “These gold-plated pay and perk packages are the main reason why city hall never turns around to tell you your taxes are going down.””

Ah yes, this would be the same ICBA that advertises RRSP and Individual Pension Plans on their website as services that their members can take advantage of for themselves and their employees. I don’t suppose that the costs of those plans would EVER be passed along to customers through the prices charged for their products and services would they? No, of course not. I’m sure the owners eat those costs out of the goodness of their heart and out of compassion for their common man and woman. Nice try charles, LOL ;)

“Loud pipes save lives”

Loud pipes are a nuisance when trying to enjoy a quiet sit down outside with friends. They should be outlawed. There is no need to have them.

BTW … anyone on motorbikes, watch out for cars, bicyclists and pedestrians as well as people’s eardrums.

No support for the PGX, pothole and weed capital of Canada, but tens of thousands available for a battery powered dinky toy.

Amazing!

Site C or a nuclear reactor in Chilliwack….there are alternatives.

Seems to me that the PGX borrowed the money from the City to fight its court case, and at a later date asked the City to allow them not to pay it back. The City said no. (Correct me if Im wrong).

So the issue is, should the PGX be responsible for its debt. In any event the City could have (and probably should have) forgiven the debt.

Insofar as the PGX giving the land to the City, Im sure that when they did so they had some expectations of getting something in return.

The property along Highway 16 West from the Playhouse Theatre, to South of Cdn Super Store, was given to the City by the Federal Government to be used for recreational purposes in perpituity. It has all been sold off to commercial business. So we can safely say that the City does basically what it wants, and to hell with doing the right thing.

Having said that, I dont beleive that having Bond and Bell stepping forward and having a photo op, while they give the PGX our tax dollars, is necessarily the correct thing do to. A tax dollar is a tax dollar.

I support the PGX 100 percent, and Im sure that they could have come up with this money without going hat in hand to the Government for it, however it seems people to-day stand in line to get their hands on tax dollars.

“In Red Deer this past week”

Did you also feel safer there than here? We are #14 on the national list of high crime rate …… they are #17 ….

Think oil dollars when you are looking at all those other things ….. check out the subsidy from the provincial oil dollar coffers to municipalities …..

Please keep that in mind. Very few people do.

Events like the PGX should have be self sufficient. People are pissed about wasting money on some pos electric car & yet happy to throw money at a lowbrow event like the PGX? Whatever.

Sorry for the error on the PGX editorial, I hit the wrong button when I posted it, blocking out the ability to comment. All fixed now…

Elaine Macdonald

Thousands of dollars spent on flower baskets yet in some sections prolific weed growth beneath the planters. All this big talk about enhancing PG forget about spending on the wants and start by taking care of the basics.

Harleyguy72.So you mean that at 3AM that’s what these pipes are doing is saving lives. Not disturbing the neighbours but saving lives.RIGHT.

“In all my years of travelling abroad I have never come across a town or city which had no heart, meaning a central plaza!”

We have one. It is called the Civic Centre Plaza and is in bad need of bringing it up to the proper level that it should be.

It needs the ice surface to be active all winter, probably enlarge it a bit to the size which Kelowna as across from their City Hall. The water feature should be an active water feature in the summer … it never is.

Build a parkade next to the pool to provide more parking for the area and provide commmercial space on the ground floor. The plaza needs places for commercial use. The original program called for that, but got lost over the years of piecemeal building additions. Even the gallery shop is hidden inside the building rather than having an exterior entrance as the Vancouver Art Gallery’s shop has.

The parking lot at the Coast is 50/50 City/Coast owned. The City can partner with the Coast to build a commercial space there and the Coast could be encouraged to put in a much overdue improvement to its banquet facilities to look over the Civic Plaza.

The library could make use of its deck fr commercial space such as a starbucks, second cup, blenz, whatever and get some money into its coffers for the rent.

The Civic centre could do the same. Look at the Kelowna Rotary Centre for the Arts as an example of how a cafe can be incorporated into its foyer space, but done so that it does not compromise the size of the existing space.

Work with the proposed hotel/condo project – hopefully it will get some funding sooner rather than later before people get cold feet – to orient its public spaces inward to the public square.

We have the germs of ideas in place in several cases, but never carry them through.

As I keep saying, City Council’s worst mistake is to deal with every day matters most of the time, when they should be dealing with setting direction …. nothing is happening with a Cultural Centre of the City (the Civic Plaza precinct) The Smart Growth on the Ground concpts, the MyPG concepts …… All get lost in file 13 or in some ridiculous Mayor’s committee of insiders dealing with trivia during their Kaffeeklatsch meetings ….

“Mayor’s committee of insiders dealing with trivia during their Kaffeeklatsch meetings”

Notice I did not say in their square underground lair … ;-)

I was driving under those new highway signs and read “watch for wildlife”……I just don’t know how we’re supposed to see them through the six foot high stink weeds and willows??

If everyone in their cages started looking then we would be seen and not have to be heard . Open your eyes and look . Don’t need a bright orange vest what the world needs is to educate people more on road safety .

If the people riding motorcycles operated them with the like performance parameters of an average car or truck (acceleration, decceleration and manuverability there would be a lot less conflict and accidents between the two) The problem is it takes all of the fun out riding. Open pipes do nothing but irritate others.

Harley riders, with bright vests, that would be a hoot. Hey have the words Harleydavidson written on them and charge $200, they will sell like crazy.

Load pipes do not save lives. But the other day I saw a bike with illegal lights that were flashing, I sure saw him. I would not like the lights at night but there is nothing wrong with them during the day.

Maybe if the bikers obeyed the same laws as cars have to there would be less problems. You don’t need a biker speed down a street on the wrong side to get pass the cars and then zip in from the left through an opening in the barricades.

At the same time cars must give the bikes a wide berth when passing them and not cut them off.

Loud pipes save lives is the biggest bunch of BS… It is propagated by people who are compensating for some kind of shortfalls that need an excuse for breaking the law to feel tough. I’ll believe loud pipes save lives when I see Harley riders with hi-vis vests and functional helmets. Ps – this is from a lifelong rider

Another lifelong m/c rider here. Loud pipes are an irritant to almost everyone.
I have had them, after a while they were not so cool anymore,just annoying.
Loud pipes will not save you from a dozie idiot who turns left across your path, they may alert someone that you are in their blind spot, but you should not be there anyway. I can agree that a little noise may alert a cager who changes lanes carelessly, but use your Screaming Eagle air horns for that. Loud pipes are not a substitute for rider awareness, and awareness is akin to survival, on the road.
metalman.

Charles I’m glad that you brought up the editorial in the Kamloops free Press that tells us about all the free perks that Kamloops Municipal worker s get .

The statement that these perks are at the expense of the tax payer is pure bull. Municipal employees in Kamloops are unionized and they contribute to the Pension Corporation that looks after the pensions for Municipal,Public Service, the Taechers pension fund and there are others.

Municipal emplyees contribute 7 % of thier wages to the pension plan,6% goes to the pension fund and 1% goes to indexing their pension on retirement.

Goes to show how gulable the media is to publish this garbage. Just look at the perks that the contractors and those in business in Prince George get from the City that is forever trying to boost tne economy with tax dollars
Cheers

And Charles here is wha Higstein said èThe statement,”did you know that Kamloops City workers don’t pay a dime to their pension benefit package ? It is funded 100% by the tax” payer”

This stuff about Robinhood are your words Not those of our illustrious head of the Independent Contractors Association.. Your statement is just as wild as those of the Contractors Association.
Cbeers

JohnnyBelt:”I agree with others, good article on the PGX. And a good decision to not allow comments on it… you’d just get the usual partisan bickering.”

They definitely should have allowed your comments. They are always totally unbiased and completely non-partisan.

PG: “They definitely should have allowed your comments. They are always totally unbiased and completely non-partisan.”

That’s rich coming from a spammer like yourself.

Good idea, Gus, re:a coffee shop in the Civic Square/Library area. There definitely needs to be something there to draw people to it.

My big concern is that before long, the biggest, grandest, most high=profile building in Prince George, is going to be the new city police station. Perhaps its square will serve as a community gathering place? ? ? ?

” Posted by: HarleyGuy72 on August 3 2012 6:50 AM
Ride safe everyone and enjoy this long weekend . And to everyone in cars please watch for motorcycles . Loud pipes save lives.”

Ya those loud pipes are sure saving a lot of lives down along Domano and the Malaspina areas.

Why do you idiots insist on blasting up and down these streets in our quiet residential neighborhoods?

You’re a gang of complete inconsiderate morons!!!

” Posted by: Jim13135 on August 3 2012 7:20 AM
Do you climb the cut banks on the Nechako River? Please park in the parking area beside McMillen Creek, and not along side the pulpmill road.

While it isn’t posted ‘no parking’ your parking your car and trucks in the bicycle lane and creating a road hazard.”

Bicycles are permitted to ride on the roads and cars and trucks are permittd to park there.

The creative team, cast and crew of THE PRODUCERS would like to thank everyone for their enthusiastic support.

The show is officially SOLD OUT!

“Bicycles are permitted to ride on the roads and cars and trucks are permitted to park there.”

Yes, bicycles are permitted to ride on the roads …… the interesting thing is that if there is a bicycle lane, it speeds up the motorized traffic on the road since the slower bikes can travel in the designated bike lanes.

Also, when the bike weaves in and out because of an obstructed bike lane, it starts to become quite dangerous.

It is all about safety and reasonableness and getting along, not about stubbornness.

I hear the 2012 Olympics had a lot of sold out venues too …… :-)

Congrats!!!

After witnessing another near miss I have to wonder when they will put a meridian in and block south bound left turns into the Hart Mohawk? There has to be ten accidents there a year for as long as I can remember and I suspect the Mohawk is not giving any proceeds from smokes and potato chips to ICBC.

Just witnessed the fire dept do a rescue on the nechako river. Great job! I am confused though and a bit taken aback that it appears as though they had to utilize a civilians boat in order to due the job! Does the fire dept not have its own watercraft? If they don’t that would be appalling, two major rivers flowing through our city limits and our emergency service doesn’t have a boat to effect rescues!!! That’s a scary situation. Glad the outcome here was a happy one…..

Interceptor, why would the Mohawk have to turn over any proceeds to ICBC. Did Mohawk build the road??

“Also, when the bike weaves in and out because of an obstructed bike lane, it starts to become quite dangerous”

Don’t weave, that’s the sign of stupidity.

First,,,I live on the hart and I don’t remember 10 accidents a year. Second, if majors owned it, it would have a turn in lane for vehicles. The mohawk has nothing, nadda, zilch to do with how people get into thier store. You must have had problems with the mohawk to think they are the cause of these so-called accidents. It is because people arent paying attention and still texting and talking on phones and tailgating that causes accidents like that.

You are permitted to turn left into the Mohawk while travelling southbound only if you will not be obstructing traffic coming from the rear. 99% of the time you will be obstructing traffic at this location.

Bikes have no choice but to weave when drivers insist on parking in the bike lanes. This is illegal under provincial law but the city gets around it by simultaneously promoting bikes lanes and not designating them as official bike lanes. Thus, they don’t have to enforce parking rules and can still tout this city as an active city. Make a decision either way. Either they are for bikes, which means the cars need to be parked elsewhere, or they are for cars and bikes are to be forced onto the roads.

Reality is that most cyclists want to be separate from traffic. Most have no interest in competing with cars for lane space, because the cyclist will always be the loser.

Regarding negativity and PG…I love this city and chose to move back here after having been away for a number of years. I complain and advocate for better thigns because I want this city to be better. It’s a nice plac eot live but it could be so much more. |Lets not be satisfied wtih the status quo but enjoy what we have while working for better.

There is a Double solid yellow line for southbound left hand turns into the Mohawk. Any accident will be your fault even if the oncoming guy causes it if you are caught turning here against traffic.