Where are all the Green haters who demanded ‘change’. LOL

So is this with or without the games levy being recinded? Wasn’t that 2% so is this really 1/2% increase or a 4.5% increase?

I’m sure they are saving allot of money with lower fuel prices. I’d like to see just 1 year with no increases. Is that too much to ask for? Higher taxes mean less money I have for local businesses.

Posted on Monday, April 20, 2015 @ 8:33 PM by Codger23

So is this with or without the games levy being recinded? Wasn’t that 2% so is this really 1/2% increase or a 4.5% increase?

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They’ll never rescind the Winter Games Levy. They’ll just change the name and keep sucking your wallet dry.

89.9 million? That is more than a thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in PG. Do we really get that much back from the city in terms of services? And that doesn’t include the utility fees.

I feel real bad for those people who’s house is assessed at over 500k. I am sure glad that I got them to lower mine the year we bought the house with a walkthrough. Told them how is it possible that I can buy a house for tens of thousands less than the assessed value? They said it was market value at yada yada date – and I said “but I AM the market, I just bought it”

Slinky. If your numbers a right can I just pay $1000 per person and my house and be done with it..be cheaper than what I pay now with taxes, utilities fees etc :)

Yay, I get to pay more taxes, said no one ever.

Cut back on the some of the benefits that employees of the City get please. Would that not save the City some real money?

$89 Million blows your mind. Especially with a population of say 75,000. Seems to me that 65% goes to salaries, benefits, policing, etc;

I think that the last tax for the Winter Games will be on the tax bill this July. After that we will have to ensure that the City gets rid of the tax, and doesn’t try some slight of hand to keep it.

We can live with a 2.5% this year, if in fact this Council makes some serious effort to hold the line on taxes next year, and finds ways to reduce the cost of running this City. That’s what they need to do, and they should be starting NOW.

If they think that they can sit on their proverbial **asses** and not make any effort to reduce costs over the next four years, they are in for a big surprise.

THE STATUS QUO IS NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE.

Sure Pval you have my permission

with so many experts i am often confused why there are not more people running for mayor and council each election… but then again that would require getting off their “proverbial *****”

Happy to be leaving.. House is on Market.. And will not be too upset with city limits sign behind me

If one looks back over the last couple of decade, then it is clear that over time every year more and more taxation revenue for the city is transferring more and more from Major industrial to residential.

2.5% more for residential and only 1.07% increase for major industrial is just a continuation of this tax transfer from major industrial to the pensioners and otherwise barely clinging on home owners.

We need a council that will stand up to administration and for the home owners, but its just to easy for them to roll the home owner, give themselves another raise to cover it, and then continue on as if its not their problem.

Posted on Monday, April 20, 2015 @ 9:23 PM by Palopu

$89 Million blows your mind. Especially with a population of say 75,000. Seems to me that 65% goes to salaries, benefits, policing, etc;

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And since CUPE won the last election, it’s only going to get worse.

option 4

every city employee from the mayor down to the lowest paid takes a 2.5% cut in pay

problem solved

lol Saywho, and 2.5 percent is such a small number right, barely noticeable? That is how they think of the increase, the taxpayers will barely notice a 2.5 percent increase, it is only like 50 bucks a year…

I get it, nobody likes to see their property taxes go up. But let’s not forget that there is this thing called “inflation”. Like it or not the unions did get pay increases for the city employees. I know Ms Green flogged that it was a zero increase contract. But really it wasn’t. The unions gave up some other accessories in their contract (eg a sick day or something) in exchange for wage increases. So the final paycheques for all the city employees will still be getting bigger than a year ago. Someone has to pay for this…… This is one source of the inflation!!!

I have said it time and time again. One of the ways to keep your property tax bill from going up up up is to have some steady growth. This is one area where PG is getting a failing grade. Additional tax money comes in from outside sources (new residents) then they help pay for these inflationary increases. Have a flat growth rate or a shrinking one and you get these increases.

Bottom line…..let’s make PG a nice place to live and the people will come!!

mwk. What we have to do first, is stop people from leaving. Once they retire a large number of people leave this town, which probably offsets the numbers that come.

Don’t expect to attract people to PG with high taxes, poor roads, cold and wet winter conditions, etc; etc;. We need to lower taxes and improve over all conditions. What we need is to identify all the problems facing Prince George, and then get a plan in place to solve them.

Playing the same old game, of tax increases and spending will not get the job done. This is the line that requires the least amount of work by the City and Administration and that’s the line they take. They need to get to work and solve some problems.

Perhaps they are waiting for a tax revolt????

I think the problem is not Council, it is management. Who really sets the Budget? It is management. Our current City manager as the previous Director of Finance, I do not believe ever presented a budget that did not increase. Please prove me wrong – Good luck with that.

If you have a monopoly, like the city of Prince George, you can set whatever price you want. Our city will just sell your property, if you do not pay your taxes. The comment above about industrial rates; we are one of the highest in the province. Here is how high it is. We could buy a new pulp mill, well the buildings, every 20 years with our current tax rates, I might be a little off but not much.

I can’t imagine what our tax rate would be without them, yet we still pay high taxes.

Council has one employee – the city manager. I sure hope she has the attitude taxes are too high. Her past career has not demonstrated this, but people can change.

Until the attitude of the city management changes, we will never see a lower tax rate: EVER!!

Palopu

“mwk. What we have to do first, is stop people from leaving. Once they retire a large number of people leave this town, which probably offsets the numbers that come.

Don’t expect to attract people to PG with high taxes, poor roads, cold and wet winter conditions, etc; etc;. We need to lower taxes and improve over all conditions. What we need is to identify all the problems facing Prince George, and then get a plan in place to solve them.

Playing the same old game, of tax increases and spending will not get the job done. This is the line that requires the least amount of work by the City and Administration and that’s the line they take. They need to get to work and solve some problems.

Perhaps they are waiting for a tax revolt????”

What was IPG hired for again???

population is decreasing in PG and lots of mega houses being built which come with costs. Why are we building and who for?

Here let me blow your minds for a minute. Counsel says they need what $89,889,242 in tax revenue this year. Check this out, at $2.00 per parking stall at the CN center for a concert, that brings in $4,000.00 per event from parking fees. Now at 20 big events through the year that brings in just from parking fees $80.000.00 just from the CN Center parking lot. So to those who bitch about tax rates, think about this. If everyone just paid for the parking they use through out the year we wouldn’t be getting tapped with tax increases. Counsel needs to start enforcing bylaws and collecting in other means. This is getting carried away big time.

Council does not say we need $89,889,242 Administration does. We can yell at Council all you want. Then Management is the one who asks for the money. Council at this point will only rubber stamp the budget. It is too early really for them to do anything. Next year is when they may be able to do something, but only if they send a clear message to management, through the city manager that the city operates more efficiently. It was tried in the last council but the approach was with a hammer. That does not work, then they backed of on everything.

Right now management will tell everyone everything is all good, we have our money. Change will only happen if we put the problem where it can be fixed. On to the city manager; that is their job. Want taxes down, let the city manager and council know. Right now the only pressure is on Council. The only pressure the city manager gets is, I want a raise. You get a raise my taxes go up.

Council can ask but it is the city manager who makes the decisions. They are councils only employee.

Don’t expect to attract people to PG with high taxes, poor roads, cold and wet winter conditions, etc; etc;. We need to lower taxes and improve over all conditions. What we need is to identify all the problems facing Prince George, and then get a plan in place to solve them.
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Stop whinig about high taxes. We paid #310,000.00 for our town home. Our taxes are $2300.00 and we pay 2544.00 for strata fees. My pension income is about $50,000.00 . We could even enjoy some travel but at our age its not important to us. We have daily recreation at our amenities building . When we say bye bye our kids will will be able to blow what we have saved.
Gus when he was around told us many times that taxes in PG were low and he was right. So pal get off the band wagon with your constant whinig about the wages that are paid to City employees. Their wages go intoo the local economy. Where does the profit go that Harpers freinds make ? Why not start a campaion for higher taxes for corporations?
Cheers

A couple of points
1) In order to keep to a zero increase budget council would have to make a decision on what to cut since the cost of everything the city does and the services it provides have not gone down!
2) The largest line items on our city budget, probably accounting for at least 80% of the overall amount are, Police, Fire Protection, and wages of city employees.
Do you want less police officers? Do you want fewer fire fighters? Do you want the city to contract out work rather than have their own employees do the necessary work?
3) We all complain about the condition of our roads, and then snow removal in Winter. Do you want road maintenance and snow removal curtailed to save money?
Let’s get over this idea that we can do more with less, that’s dreamland! Reality is that inflation causes us to spend more every year, just so that we can maintain our current level of service.
This years increase is right in line with inflation, if it was significantly higher there would be cause to bitch and whine, but if we are holding the line at just what it costs to maintain status quo…I don’t understand the controversy!

Retired02, just crunch the numbers: You pay 2,300 for 310,000 – PG pays 1,825 for 230,042. That means our mill rate that was just set at .00794 – multiply by your 310,000 – if you owned that building in PG you would pay 2,459.33 in property tax plus your strata and city utilities on top.

NyteHawwk
1. can you say core service review? Can you say user fees up on everything?
2. they already contract out, and the RCMP return money almost every year
3. Fuel price is down, one of the largest costs is fuel with the fleet. Cost pressures are down quite a bit

BCs CPI was 1.1%, hardly 2.5% – with the increase in all user fees we shouldn’t be running 2.5% to 3.5% increases every year – once those are added in the average family is paying a lot more than 50 bucks more a year or 2.5%.

Controversy comes to those who are not union and do not get cost of inflation raises every 6 months