The 160 Grand We Dumped Into The Sewer For Horizon Air Is Not The Only One

Friday, September 12, 2008 03:46 AM

The idea of guaranteeing the Horizon Air flight into the city is but one symptom of what has been happening at the Hall in recent years. We have increased our debt, increased our taxes and the time to have a look at what we have been doing has never been more evident.

The city has been on a roll, the assessments have increased which allowed the city to find some brand new inflated assessments in order to glean more money from the taxpayers under the guise that we all own property with a value that is increasing (along with the assessment) by leaps and bounds.

Well reality is about to set in not only in this city but in every single city in this province where the councils of the day have been using the increased assessments as a means of sucking more money from the taxpayers , far more than inflation.

We have seen our debt and we can’t seem to get off the speeding train. The reality that I have spoken about will come, regardless of what the council of the day may think it would like to see for this city, when the tab is handed to us.

We are set to embark on a program to house the homeless in the city, clearly a responsibility of the province who will be only to happy to have us take that program off their hands.

We have set aside more tax dollars every year for areas where we have no business being involved. If the City feels the province is down loading onto the City perhaps they should have a look at their actions as they appear to be more than willing participants.

In the end the spending of $160,000 dollars to set up a direct flight between Prince George and Seattle may have been dreaming, but believe me that is not the only $160 grand that we have dumped into the sewer over the past three years.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Friday, September 12, 2008 03:46 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: Eagleone on September 12 2008 6:16 AM

I'll second that opinion. I bet just the debt from the Tarazan deal and the RCMP station only is more debt then the city had for everything only 10-years ago. I would also agree that the city of PG likes to create investments into things that require large on-going operating budgets (bureaucracy), as well as investing in areas of provincial and federal responsibility.

Operating budgets is one reason why I think trails and parks are good investments, because they are relatively cheep to maintain and provide the maximum utility for the tax dollar. Parks and trails also fit in with the idea of city planning and essential infrastructure. I would much rather see the city develop a better parks and trail network, than fund Initiatives PG to pick winners and losers in the markets by subsidizing like prostrating agents on our behalf the foreign corporations that are attracted by naive fools with a public purse... rather than corporations looking for a genuine strategic advantage.

The bottom line I think is that real long term industrial growth goes where it has the best infrastructure advantage... and not where it gets the best short term subsidy. That should be obvious historical fact.

BTW with an appropriate park system maybe all the homeless people downtown would have a place to go some of the time defusing their negative realities on the streets with more attractive places of solitude and or recreational activities. Maybe the city investing in social problems is a symptom of the city not addressing its infrastructure responsibilities.

Posted by: diplomat on September 12 2008 10:31 AM

Things will never change if we again return the incumbent councilors and elect a former councilor for mayor.

We need fresh minds with fresh attitudes!

BTW: We had visitors who used the Horizon flight from/to Seattle and who loved everything about it. Too bad the bean counters had the final say...it reminds me of the Chances gaming centre never being given a chance to succeed in the longer run.

The money spent on the Horizon effort was definitely not dumped down a sewer, in my opinion.

Posted by: MrPG on September 12 2008 11:58 AM

So Diplomat, how far in the hole are you willing to go to keep (mostly) empty planes in the air? Horizon wanted to up the commitment from $400K to $750K. No thanks. It should be viable on its own, without the taxpayer's help.

And I'm all ears in terms of who to vote for in the upcoming municipal election. So far, we have Rogers and Zurowski. Everybody says we need 'fresh' ideas, but don't suggest which candidate would fit the bill.

Posted by: lostfaith on September 12 2008 12:12 PM

Taxdollars have no business being used to help private business.

Posted by: diplomat on September 12 2008 1:34 PM

For how long? I do believe that just a few months was not long enough to promote it properly. The city pours money into all kinds of mega projects like the one planned for the arts so perhaps it is more a question of priorities. Is it a high priority to have a direct connection to Seattle for business people and tourists to have ready access to Prince George?

If it isn't a high priority then the whole idea should have been rejected in the first place.

When $7.5 millions for trails are mentioned a lot of people have no objections, but 2.5% of that sum invested (and lost) in a trial to promote daily direct flights to Seattle seem to be a catastrophical outcome to some.

Posted by: metalman on September 12 2008 1:50 PM

Businesses large and small have always gone to the governments looking for money, usually in the guise of creating or saving jobs. The various governments set the precedent long ago tha tit is okay to ask for help, and help has been given so freely that some seem to expect a handout.
Of course they are not called handouts or any other name that common garden variety taxpaying citizens would use to describe the funds that are freely given to some, but denied to others. There sometimes seems to be no rhyme or reason to the distribution of grants, except around election time. These dweebs who control the public purse strings would not last a year in business if they had to be accountable for the money they spend, I am disgusted with the vast array of government monies available for the most arcane reasons, talk about waste.
metalman.

Posted by: MrPG on September 12 2008 2:02 PM

Just like the point Ben made, governments at all levels are allocating our tax dollars in areas where we have no business doing so.

$160K here and there may not seem like a lot of money but it all adds up. None of it is right, no matter how many other examples you might come up with.

My message to government is to stop wasting my tax dollars and coming back for more when their schemes fail.

Posted by: gus on September 12 2008 11:30 PM

Alaska Air (Horizon) is cutting 1,000 jobs and reducing flights all over the place. PG is not unique.

Posted by: Chester on September 13 2008 4:14 PM

Excuse me, the money committed to Horizon Air was dumped in the sewer. When a business can't keep the doors open for at least 12 months to get established in a community, it doesn't deserve to be in business, in my opinion. I recall mentioning in this column that I had issues with Horizon not standing behind it's word? They were already cancelling flights this summer leaving travellers stranded here in PG. Well, I guess I get to say, I told you so. Chester

Posted by: Palopu on September 13 2008 8:43 PM

The City in effect is subsidizing Horizen Air to provide a direct flight to Seattle. Only a fool or a knave would not be able to determine that the Pr George to Seattle passengers would be those people who used to go to Vancouver and connections using Westjet and Jazz.

Why should I a taxpayer help a US Airline take business away from Canadian Airlines.

Why should I a taxpayer pay for people to get a direct flight to Seattle rather than lay over in Vancouver. I dont care one iota, where people go on their holidays, how they get there, or how long they stay, or how they get back. That is their business, however they can do it on their own dollars and not on taxpayers money.

Same thing applies to people who want to come to Prince George from Seattle, they can fly to Vancouver and then on to Prince George, or they can drive, again I really dont care how they get here, but I sure as hell shouldnt be paying for it.

This was a bogus attempt by the City, IPG, and the Airport Authority to get an International Flight into Prince George to try and up the status of this Airport from Regional to International. Another experiment in **Big Shotism** that costs us money. Just putting on three customs people at the Airport to clear 20 people through customs ( one hour per day ) would cost us through Federal money $300,000.00 per year in wages and benefits.

These guys are fast and loose with taxpayers money and they need a swift kick in the butt.