Veterans and Taxes Up for Council Discussion
Prince George, B.C.- There are two notices of motion to be considered by Prince George City Council this evening.
Councilor Garth Frizzell is bringing forth a motion for the City to consider working towards having a special covenant that recognizes and supports veterans and their families. The communities of Conception Bay South, Newfoundland, and Halton Hills Ontario have such covenants.
The framework for such a covenant covers four goals:
- Leverage support for Veterans and their families by affirming or reaffirming a community’s willingness and commitment to maintaining and/or building an actively supportive environment where veterans and their families will be recognized.
- Develop and showcase partnerships, organizations, programs, and services within communities supporting veterans and their families.
- Provide an opportunity to encourage or announce new or existing initiatives or programs of support.
- Create a network of community based resources across Canada, which will be featured on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.
The other notice of motion comes from Councilor Albert Koehler, who is calling on Council to direct staff to prepare the 2015 budget with no more than a 1.5% increase in mind. Koehler says the tax levy has nearly doubled from 2001 ($44.7 million) to 2013 ($88 million) yet “the Prince George population has remained at a steady state.”
He says taxpayers are experiencing tax fatigue and want a very low, “fair” tax increase.
Comments
“He says taxpayers are experiencing tax fatigue and want a very low, fair tax increase
He could never be so wrong! We want no tax increase.
I applaud his action to keep taxes down. Sure, we would all like no taxes but then we cry for more or better services.
Posted by: Jack son on August 18 2014 7:57 AM
I applaud his action to keep taxes down. Sure, we would all like no taxes but then we cry for more or better services.
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Not at all. What we really need to see is smaller government and more fiscal responsibility.
What a pleasent thought, would have been nice prior to an election year. You can always tell when a politician is lying to you, his lips move.
Taxation is not the problem. Uncontrolled spending of tax dollars is the problem.
We need only to look at the $40 Million dollar police station (plus $38 Million in interest over 20 years) to get an indication of where our dollars go.
Then of course we have the Wood Innovation Building that was paid for by the Provincial Government, but will be given to the City to run and maintain. Plus the money (for the property) that the City donated to the project. Plus the cost of tearing down, the old Prince George Hotel.
There are many other areas of spending that are too numerous to mention, however you can rest assured that the City Administration is operating fast and loose with out tax dollars.
We need to hold the line on taxes. If they cannot collect anymore money, or borrow anymore money, then they cannot spend anymore money. Its just that simple.
it is nice that Mr. Kohler recognizes that taxes have increased substantially but he makes little mention of the huge increase in non-discretionary user fees under his watch. User fees are taxes too.
Old annual report available on-line is 2005. CPI from 2004 to 2013 is 17% increase.
Selected items from the annual reports. Sorry, tables don’t paste too well into this box, but in almost every category the city has surpassed the CPI excessively. Almost wish someone had done a core review to find out why our expenditures have exceeded the CPI by such a large margin over the last 10 years.
20132004% change
Police152471174030%
Fire fighting11275811139%
Public transit4298272658%
Debt interest28491004184%
Roads137031057230%
Corporate Services6888438657%
General admin447444890%
City council51742821%
Parks Rec Cultural12221853243%
BTW – I got the 2004 numbers from the comparative numbers on the 2005 annual report.
Hey, how about the veterans idea being proposed by Councilor Frizzel? I guess its not important that 152 soldiers came home in caskets from Afghanistan.
cheers
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