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So, How Much Do We Owe?

By 250 News

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 04:09 PM

City Councilor and Mayoralty candidate Dan Rogers says he will be asking the Finance Department  for details on the city's "debt". 

He was responding to a statement issued by the City's Finance Department which refers to the City's ability to carry a debt load but makes no mention of what that debt load is. (see "Try to Read Between the Lines")

"I want the city finance department to inform us what our peer communities debt loads are" saysRogers, "Just because we have the ability to pay, doesn’t mean that we use up that credit. I believe we should be managing our debt load now during these good times, because interest rates are not always going to be as good as they are now."

Rogers says under the old system, before the Municipal Act was changed, we had a debt load of $50 dollars per capita.  That has been changed to an "ability to pay" system, and while we have that ability because of our taxpayers, it doesn’t mean we use it all up.
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Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 04:09 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Comment Posted by: trueblue2 on October 25 2005 7:27 PM
I haven't seen the report, but am wondering, is this sort of like a line of credit? The city is presenting a document that indicates they are "good" for a certain amount of money? I don't think there could be too many families in Prince George that could afford raising, and using their line of credit. The usual goal is to reduce rather that increase...
Comment Posted by: owl on October 26 2005 1:59 AM
I wonder how many people who use the "ability to pay" indicator to determine whether we will borrow money have permanently crossed fingers.

We borrow today because we think we can pay it back without increasing taxes, then the economy takes a nosedive and we end up having to raise taxes ....

"gee, I guess we made a mistake" .....

Have we been borrowing our way out of a recession and we are just finding out about it?