Was there any doubt? Just raise taxes! We all have endless pockets. Total waste of tax payers money! I'm sick and tired of all forms of government reaching further in to our pockets everyday while their corporate buddies and themselves just get richer. Whats wrong with this country? And don't forget user fees and rising Hydro, Telus, Terasen bills etc going up day by day. Just can't get ahead anymore.

Hell, can't even make ends meet, let alone get ahead!!!

Why does the city have to borrow more money?! They seem to have a reserve of capital funds that they used to buy the old Fifth Avenue Hotel and Outrigger restaurant amoung many other useless pieces of property. How about selling them to help raise money and not stealing it from the taxpayers? I find it ridiculous that we are spending millions when we don't have the funds available. Do the mayor and council run their households this way? Just because there is a taxbase does not mean we want to pay the bill. Hold a referendum getting the taxpayers to agree to the loan? Shouldn't the people of Prince George get a say? It seems council feels that they have the say and the people they represent don't.

And the madness and spending spree on the backs of home owners continues. Why cant the RCMP try to raise money for their over priced new building? I can not wait to get the hell out of this town. The people of Prince George have said NO to this many times. WE NEED TO HAVE A SAY!

FURTHER MORE WE ARE ALREADY 111 MILLIONS DOLLARS IN DEBT! Add another 66 million for the cop shop, another 54 million for the art centre and another 11 million for a paved trail. God help us!

The $66 tax increase is just the start. They are also trying to push through the PAC- come hell or high water. We have had annual tax increases the last few years without these major expenditures. When you consider that city staff, council and mayor cannot make the hard decisions to hold the line on taxes, I think we will be looking at a 10% increase when all is said and done.

Where do I sign the Alternate Approval!!!

I don't see too many people gathered outside city hall voicing their feelings to council. Make a sign and get at it!

Typical government logic,even if it is only at a municipal level.
Listen to the voices in your heads and ignore the taxpayers.

Just raise taxes. No problem for city council.
With the winter games and the way council seems to have endless amount of money to buy every piece of derelict property downtown no one else wants I for one will be looking at the voting record of the present day group of councillors come election time.
Seems these people have taken a page from Campbell's book and once elected it gives them free rein to do as they please.
The additional cost of the RCMP building should go to referendum at election time. The reasons council gave for turning that motion down is a bunch of hogwash. The real reason is it is a lot harder to get 10% of the people to make the trip to city hall to sign for the alternate approval process.
As for the $66.00 a year. This is based on a $200,000.00 home. Pickup the real estate guide and see how many homes are priced at $200,000.00. The average increase to taxes will likely be $100.00+ dollars a year.
I for one will be signing. This council needs to be stopped.

Who could have guessed, eh?

City Hall what is the difference in cost between this building and a regular office building?

City Hall if our population has not increased for what 10, 20 years why do we need a new building?

Wow, resident is right, take a look at the real estate paper or go online and see where the $200,000 homes are. The cost to service this debt is for the next 20 years. What about all of the other tax increases the city will impose upon the residents of Prince George. A building like the drawing that we saw is not needed for a cop shop, next thing you know the mayor and councillors will want a building just like that. I have lived in Prince George since 1967 and raised my 3 kids here. This year however I have had enough, the way the taxes are increased every year I wont be able to afford to live in my home of 25 years much longer. Earlier this year I decided I will be moving, this will happen in the spring. Good luck people of Prince George.

I am confused as to where city council thinks we get all the money required to keep paying tax increases; its only $66 its only $120 its only... This seems to be the way Prince George city council thinks. Its the same mentallity as the BC gov't with HST, suck it up it only costs the average person... I've heard that way to much lately. When was the last time anybody got a raise. When you stand around the "water cooler" at work everybody is in the same boat now. 3 days after pay day and everybody is counting the days until next payday. The problem is too many of the decision makers, including our Mr. Mayor were born with a silver spoon in their %&# and have never had to count the days til payday.

The downtown looks like crap. Most of the buildings are old, unsafe and just plain ugly. If we want pg to be the so called northern hub and be attractive to investment and people looking to relocate then open up your wallet. You spend the money for home renos, why not the city?

Renos??? What's that? I don't have the money to spend on home renos. I've had to tighten my belt like most others. My wages have not gone up in many years but the cost of living sure has. If I spent money like this council does, I'd be bankrupt. We need a referendum on large spending capital projects like this. Dan promised during his campaign he'd take the PAC to referendum. He better hold true to his word about that.

The story above says that the "The amount of money in question is $13,821,000." It also says "that the city has already borrowed the rest of the money for the estimated overall construction cost of $38.9 million."

Is that $66 per year just for servicing the $13,821,000 or is for the total borrowing of $38.9 million?

Sure would appreciate some more transparency and hard facts and figures about many things that are being discussed at council sessions - too many of the numbers being thrown out in that hallowed chamber are quite vague.

There are contingency funds for this and for that and they seem to appear out of nowhere when it is convenient and when it is not convenient all of a sudden a total inability to come up with another hundred bucks surfaces.

All a taxpayer can do is observe and wonder what is going on.

I am so glad we moved out of town. The spending in PG is way out of hand.

If you are a mortgage holder, then you are held hostage by this city council. Dare not withhold my taxes because the interest penalty would just kill you. Simply held hostage!

Another increase in taxes? Average of $66, I wonder how that's going to work out? Last tax adjustment I was one of the lucky above average tax payers and paid a substantial increase of almost 30%(for a modest home less than $200,000). Wages for the last 12 years increased 2% per annum. I am not sure how much more I can afford with all these "small" increases in taxes, garbage fees and weren't they talking about the sewer infrastructure needing a major overhaul? I think they should stop subsidizing the new neighbourhoods that are being developed in ever widening circles around the city core. The beautiful roads and curbs servicing new subdivisions which are less than 50% built, underneath which must be water and sewer mains as well. Garbage removal costs must be high per household with all the gaps between containers at the curb. The City needs to do what the rest of us are doing - scale back on the extras and pay attention to what it needs and not what it wants. Quit allowing expansion until it can pay for itself. It's like changing your clothes and wearing the same old underwear, looks nice but it's a little smelly underneath.

Amazing! Look around Dan and council.Most people are having a hard time and have had to cut many things from our list of wants and needs.Anyone that is borrowing are crazy.Interest rates will for sure rise in the next yr.As a home owner and long time resident, all the rate increases have far outpaced any pay increases.I'm one of the fortunate people , I still have a job ,for now.The services have not increased in my part of town.Think I saw the sweeper once this yr.You are spending like drunken sailors,Get a grip, we cannot afford this!You have lost my support ,next time I will not jote for you.

All this future spending gonna cut down pot hole filling? Hope not.

...heard on the news today that the RCMP can just go ahead and build its own new headquarters and just charge the cost back to the city!

If that is correct why are we having any discussion about it in council, here on this site and anywhere else???

Hope its not true, but it probably is!

Summerland http://www.dist.summerland.bc.ca/Local%20Projects/RCMP_Station/RCMP_STAtion.htm

and here is the vote result
http://www.bclocalnews.com/okanagan_similkameen/pentictonwesternnews/news/104224029.html

Actually the RCMP would be renting some space from a city building for 12.5 provincial officers for $150,000 to $200,000 per year.

So, if we were to reverse it, just based on those figures roughly, for 120 staff, that would be $1.5Million to $2.0Million per year.

We would then have to come up with that amount of money every year to pay for the building in perpetuity unless they handle it like a P3 and pay it off over 30 years and then buy it for $1.

Same difference or worse possibly.

So many wants. But, what do we really need? Let's fix up what we have, focus on improving and/or renovating the areas that are already developed. The services are already in.

Municca, I did move. Totally done with the BS in Prince George. Yesterday I got my Oilberta drivers license, and now, Mayor Rogers and Gordy Scumball can kiss me right where the sun don't shine.

I bought a used car the other day, NO TAX. No PST, No GST, and no F&*#!@g HST. Auto insurance is competitive, you can shop around.

Gas is 93.9 a litre. Roads are smooth as glass compared to Prince George. I can buy beer at Super Store for $11.98 a dozen if I buy two!

Prince George, you are broke. Better wake up and smell the coffee!! All the fancy stuff that you people want, you can't afford. 80,000 rednecks ain't going to no performing arts center. The couple of non-redneck people in Prince George can pay for it themselves!

The old/new bingo hall would have been a great place for the RCMP building. It was designed for multiple stories to be added. It had the underground parking required. It was perfect! Would have saved millions of dollars. Nobody wants to talk about that now.

Bunch of damn FOOLS running the show.

Prince George, and British Columbia are being sold out!!

I don’t like living in a police state.

This week I got an up close and personal experience with how far our police state has gone.

On Monday I blog’ed my opinion on Opinion 250 on a couple of RCMP related issues. One could say I was critical of the new police stations choices by city council, as well as the new laws that make the ICBC system an extrajudcial system and not a system with rule of law through the courts and such. I spoke up I guess.

On Tuesday morning on my way to work I was listening to the morning radio and going along like I do every day. I might have been speeding on North Nechako, as I see they’ve reduced the speed limit to 50 now from 60 that it was previously. Maybe 55-60 up until the intersection at the over pass on the way to the Nechako Bridge… the light turned yellow right as I approached the intersection… that’s a fast yellow from when a car pulls up to it and I was at that decision point and I figured well I can clear the intersection in time if I speed it up for a short bit (no one else anywhere in sight) so I burped the gas a bit to clear the intersection… but not a lot as I had a guy coming off the off ramp that cut in front of me for the bridge lane and he was moving faster than I was.

So next thing I know I see this cop suburban coming up very fast behind me, and I thought oh someone must have robbed a bank or something. Next thing I know its coming in all commando style like a t-bone to my truck (all out in the road like that too) and I stopped immediately because I thought he was going to ram me. Officer ‘Cheka’ I suppose well call him is hollering at me to take the keys out of the ignition and keep my hands where he can see them. I was dumbfounded and asked if I had done something wrong… I still thought maybe he had the wrong guy or something?

Officer ‘Cheka’ then says you were doing 41km over the speed limit when you went through that intersection. I was like you gotta be serious… impossible. He says license and registration, so I handed it over to him and he says your truck will be impounded for 7-days. Now its dawning on me that this is no regular situation and something funny is going on. He didn’t even have the paperwork completed yet and an unmarked tow truck was on the scene hooking up to my truck.

Officer Cheka then returned as my truck was being hooked onto with a ticket for alleged excessive speed and failing to stop for a red light. This is not what happened, but that was what my ticket was for. It was for $368 dollars for excessive speed, and $167 for red light intersection. I asked if I could at least do up my window (which I did down when pulled over to talk to the officer)… I asked if I could secure my truck before its towed away. I was denied this request, and so I asked the tow truck operator if he could do them up when he got it to their impound. Tow truck operator said he would.

So there I was in a mater of five minutes later standing on the side of the road watching my truck be towed away with the cop following. I still have no idea where they took my truck to at this moment. I had a perfect drivers abstract without any prior infraction, as well as all my road safety bonuses with ICBC, but this matters not at all.

So in the end I pay $535 fine…
God knows how much for points but likely as much, another $500?…
I pay a tow bill of $80+HST…
I pay storage for who knows how much for a week of storage probably another $500…
Possibly my truck will be vandalized or what ever over this time…
I have no truck to drive to work with, so I have to take a cab at $20 each direction for another $200…
I got put on the spot and embarrassed in front of co-workers (it might cost me my job)…
I lost a sense of dignity having never had a vehicle towed before (I suspect it was a rouse to search it without me present as it was a drug cop in a black SUV that pulled me over)…
Mandatory policy from ICBC is an administrative suspension of 3-months for anyone with an excessive, and so I expect the certified mail will arrive shortly before Christmas, of which when I sign will be my acknowledgement of an administrative suspension for 3-months. Administrative suspensions can not be appealed or challenged in the courts.
Once the administrative suspension arrives (which it surely will) I loose my job because I require my license to work.
Once I loose my job I loose my house and everything else because you can’t collect EI if you loose your job because you lost your drivers license.

So I now expect by Christmas I will have lost everything because a half moment of thinking oh I’ll just clear the intersection quickly before the light turns red, as no one else is around anyways, and really I wasn’t hardly moving to begin with.

The only positive is I likely won’t be around anymore in this town to pay into the new RCMP station when it inevitably goes ahead. Officer Cheka and his regulations committee at ICBC will be making darn sure of that. I hope my house sells quick because I think I’ll need to move to Alberta just to survive the new police state in BC.

Wow! That's quite a post Eagleone. I knew the police state was here a long time ago. Actually,seatbelt laws and women in the force convinced me of that. You are right to speak your mind and I believe every word of your rant. I have relatives in the RCMP. Hmmm - I better not run any yellow lights or jaywalk huh?
I think it's a invasion of our privacy to look us up from a blog. Maybe we should stop blogging on here. I think I'll get a rental car.

To taxinapothole: There's a lot of us right behind you. I'm working real hard on the move out of here and back to Alberta. This place sucks hard.
The city council told me my house isn't worth a shit and now they want me to anti up some more tax money for it.

Eagleone, total ignorant cop and you are right, B.C. is turning into a policed state province, all in the name of collecting money for the Campbell governement. Papers Please! Where are you going? Why are you going there? When are you coming back. Pretty soon you will need to apply for a permit to go grocery shopping. Impounding vehicles is theft! Soon they will come and take your home too maybe throw you family in jail for good measure.

What is wrong here?
If you own a house, you have to pay for pot holes, now you have to pay for the RCMP building, the list goes just on and on.
If you rent a place or live in a shelter, of course you don't have to pay.
I never needed the RCMP since I am living here in PG. All these drunks and crackheads and druggies or drugdealers use the RCMP and I have to pay for it? Look what's going on downtown, I hardly never go there anymore.
My house taxes has almost doubled in the last 7 years and I am fed up with it. We still have pot holes, even so, we house owners pay for it. Living in a side road, you hardly see a snow plough or other city service.
Now we have to pay for a new RCMP building? For what?
I bought a house out of city limits and will be moving soon. My house here will be for sale.
Bye bye PG, good luck, hope there will be still enough houseowners paying for your services.

41kms over the limit in a residential area and your surprised by the cops reaction? Maybe Constable Cheka has been to one too many traffic fatalities to just let your "slight indiscretion" slide.

I went from 1992 until 2008 without a traffic ticket and then got two in a two month span. Did I grumble about them? You bet. Did I think going 15kms over the speed limit warranted a ticket? No I didn't.

Truth is though, I broke the law plain and simple and it didn't matter if my clean driving record and ICBC Road Star record was tattooed on my head.

Do the crime, do the time.

And if you think its better in Alberta, try dealing with the fish cops over there for a sampling of a police state.

Howard_B_Stern, it sounds like you will do well with a POLICE STATE. You have not a clew!