Council Says Yes to Alternate Approval Process
Prince George, B.C.- Five capital projects slated for 2016, will be put to the Prince George electorate in the form of an alternate approval process.
The five projects are:
- Mobile equipment replacement ($4,570,279)
- Repairs to the 2nd Avenue Parkade ($2,725,000)
- Repairs to Plaza Parkade ($1,170,000)
- Replace arena floor at Kin 3 ($1,050,000)
- Repair Willlowcale/ Haggith Creek crossing ($1,800,000)
The projects need approval from the electorate not because of the amount of money to be borrowed, but because of the lengthy term of the loans. The loan for replacing mobile equipment would be a ten year term, the others would each be for 20.
The debt servicing costs for each of the first ten years, is the equivalent of a 1% increase in the tax levy, but that doesn’t mean taxes will have to be boosted to cover the debt servicing charges. There are some loans which will be wrapping up by the time these are added, so there may be no overall impact on the levy.
Council, ( with the exception of Frank Everitt who was absent) unanimously approved the alternate approval process for these loans.
Comments
Rainbow crosswalk – $1.1 million
Winter games legacy – $ 10 million
No surprises here. Of course the Council would go for the Alternative Approval Process, because they have a better chance of getting the money they want. It is almost impossible to get the 5,200 signatures you need to force this borrowing to a referendum. Especially when you have five different project included in the same AAP. This doesn’t happen by accident, it was done that way for a reason. The same as they did by having the police station AAP done in three different phases. While this type of shenanigans is not illegal it leaves something to be desired when it comes to being honest and up front with taxpayers.
So we have a few questions:
1. The 2016 Provisional Financial Plan provides for general operating expenditures of $131.8 Million.
2. A tax increase of approx. $3,097,573.00 is required to maintain core service levels and funding for contractual commitments. Plus other increases like $700,000.00 for the Snow Control Levy, $965,158.00 to the General Infrastructure Reinvestment Fund. The combined total taxation increase for 2016 is proposed to be 3.00%.
3. So it seems we have lots of spending commitments, and lots of taxation increases to cover these commitments, however we still have to borrow money for the above mentioned projects. $11,315,279.00 to be precise. Plus all the interest that has to be paid.
It seems that the City is hell bent to ensure that all sources of revenue are spent well into the future, which includes any revenue that could be saved as we pay off previous borrowing.
Again, this doesn’t happen by accident. We have people on the City payroll who manage this money with (it seems) the intent to ensure that taxpayers will never get a break.
How much money has the City squirreled away in the various funds that could be used for these projects?
One would have to go through the Provisional Financial Plans, and the year end reports to get some idea what the hell goes on at City Hall, and even then, unless you are an accountant you would still be confused.
Confusion works well for Governments.
Not sure that anyone will get off their ass and try and do something about this long term borrowing, which costs us a fortune in interest, however we will just have to wait and see.
The interest on the above borrowing for the five projects over the 10/10 year period would be $2,518,981.00. Pretty significant I would say,
Should read 10/20 year period.
The alternate approval process is totally underhanded. It goes to show you
how sneaky and underhanded the city council really are. They must be ready to top up their wage soon as well. Get very nervous, Lynn Hall liked Justins 30 billion dollar budget. This budget will bury us in debt. We better get printing money, or maybe we will borrow it. We can use the alternate approval process.
Absolutely disgusting the way this city manages its revenue and then continues to go back to the undemocratic AAP to fund things.
You know the AAP wouldn’t even be required if they could just learn to save and set up contingency funds with some forethought. I guess that would require some fiscal accountability though.
Why aren’t the parkades self funding… they’ve been around for 40+ years.The Willowcale fiasco is purely the result of not maintaining what we have, which now costs us $1.8 million.
Its bloody ridiculous when one looks at cities on the Island that all have nearly no debt, and yet PG is the second most indebt city in the province and just continues to pile it on.
Why are repairs to the second avenue parkade on the list to borrow big money?
In 2013 the city doubled the parking rates. What did the elite crew at city hall have for an explanation “We now have aging infrastructure that requires significant capital investment,” adding the rent collected will be used specifically for those off-street parking facility costs.
Can we assume the increase of up to 45 per month went to general revenue? Or is it in an account specifically for that purpose so general tax rates don’t have to go up to cover the costs?
city loves using the alternate approval process.
They make it inconvenient and time consuming.
they are counting on us either being too lazy or two busy to vote against what they want to do.
the PAC will be done this same way….
The city has a budget to pay the bills, right? Also a lot of high paid people to keep on top of this. But nope, they need to take out loans for the taxpayers to pay for. Very poor planning I would say.
– Sell the parkades, make them private.
Mobile equipment replacement ($4,570,279)
– Lease the equipment
Repairs to the 2nd Avenue Parkade ($2,725,000)
Repairs to Plaza Parkade ($1,170,000)
– Sell the parkades, make them private.
Replace arena floor at Kin 3 ($1,050,000)
– This should have been taken care of in the Winter Games fund, what happened to the surplas? You found a million for the outdoor oval that is used 4 weeks out of the year, and a million for a rainbow crosswalk.. how about a little responsible spending instead of catering to the rainbow coalition?
Repair Willlowcale/ Haggith Creek crossing ($1,800,000)
– This is a city of PG responsibility?
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