Council Called Upon to Ditch 2 Way Traffic Plan and Manage Money

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 04:57 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The budget meeting for the City of Prince George was off to a fiery start with two members of the public stepping forward to state their feelings about expenditures.

Laurie Berner operates the LifeSavers program located on Cassiar. She called on Council to rethink the recently approved plan that would turn second and fourth avenues into two way streets. She says not only does she not see any need to move towards two way traffic on those roads, the suggested roundabout at 5^th and Cassiar will “Practically be in my driveway.” She says clients already have difficulty in getting to her location and a roundabout will just make things worse. She said Council seems to be in favour of spending, and there just isn’t $2 million dollars available to pay for the work . She also argued that traffic on 5^th is moving well and doesn’t need any “calming” from the development of a roundabout.

Second to step forward was Frank Bauer. He wanted council to explain why, when his assessment keeps going up, are his taxes also going up? “If the assessment is going up, my taxes should go down, but with the way things are going, my taxes will have doubled within two years.”

While Mayor Dan Rogers tried to explain the delicate balance between assessments and tax levels, he also stated that Council “cares deeply about being fiscally prudent.”

Council’s budget discussions today focus on Development Services, Operations, and Tourism P.G.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 04:57 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: interceptor on February 23 2011 5:30 PM

“If the assessment is going up, my taxes should go down"
ummmm..huh?

Posted by: cmdrjoe on February 23 2011 5:38 PM

Fiscally prudent? Does he even know what he is talking about?

Trips to China, Performing Arts Centers, Unnecessary road construction (when we can't even maintain the roads we have!), wanting to substantially increase wages of Councillors... I could go on and on.

Where the hell does he come off as saying he is trying to be fiscally prudent? I just got a bill from the city for my services, 3 straight years now it's gone up ($40 this time), property taxes have gone up three straight years.

When the hell is enough, enough? I'm tired of people spending MY money. Listen to us and stop feeding us BS lines about "car[ing] deeply about being fiscally prudent."

Posted by: mwk on February 23 2011 5:47 PM

cmdrjoe......give me a break.

your bill went up $40....... come on. I bet you go to the grocery store on a regular basis and see an increase of a few bucks from 1 year to the next. I bet that increase is a lot more than $40. But are you complaining about that........probably.....I bet you complain about everything.

Let's face it, the cost of delivering services in this day and age has gone up.

I bet I live in a pretty regular home and I pay about $3K per year in property taxes and utilities to the City. I get a lot of services for that $3K.

I for one think the City is doing a fairly good job.

Posted by: Runner46 on February 23 2011 7:54 PM

mwk

ditto

Posted by: Captain America on February 23 2011 7:59 PM

I would like to see were we rank up in average city taxes. Does anyone have any links to provincial and national data? I bet we pay more than a lot of other places of similar size and scope. That information is what will truly provide clarity to this city tax issue.

Also, why build roundabouts on 5th and cassiar where the traffic flow is very reasonable but not do something about ferry going up to the highway? That place is a nightmare for residents coming in and out of the subdivision there in the morning and evening work traffic. Instead of the flashing green light at landsdowne, it should be a regular traffic light. That road has become a main artery for people coming to and fro from dowtown/bcr site to costco, superstore, college heights. I wonder who I have to talk to about that?

Posted by: Harbinger on February 23 2011 8:17 PM

"...council cares deeply...?" More like deeper in yer pockets.

Posted by: verballabel on February 23 2011 8:45 PM

I'll take $100,000 and a whistle to direct traffic downtown if you would like Danny Boy.

Posted by: mythoughts on February 24 2011 11:07 AM

I agree with Laurie Berner. Why do we need a roundabout there? The traffic on 5th does flow very nicely. Why waste millions more of taxpayers money???

Posted by: cantaddafter5 on February 24 2011 11:47 PM

cmdrjoe

You couldn't have said it better! I too am more than peeved with this spend spend spend trend of City Counsel, and you had to mention the Utility bill didn't you! This would be the one which includes garbage pickup which was crammed down our throats as being more cost effective even with the purchase of new garbage trucks to handle these city owned trash cans,AND, we were told that this would keep our costs down, that being said I can't begin to imagine how high the Utility bills would be now had we not been forced into this
new "cost saving" garbage setup!!!!

And mwk for your information that $40.00 dollar increase is on each semi-annual utility bill. My utility bills have gone from 424.00 per year to 638.00 per year in the last 3 years!!! That is very close to a 50 percent increase over 3 years, I haven't yet calculated the increases in my taxes (even though my tax assessments have been going down), and like the majority of people in this city I sure as he@$ didn't get any pay raises to even try to come close to these percentile increases. As a matter of fact I haven't had a raise in over 5 years!!!!!! So all I can say is hats off to cmdrjoe and anyone else with the guts to stand up and say something and mwk, Dan Rogers and the rest of your ilk OPEN YOUR BLOODY EYES THIS SPENDING CANNOT CONTINUE! You can't properly manage nor maintain what you already have (roads, civic buildings etc.) apparently you don't understand the meaning of the word NO, the majority do not see the need for a performing arts centre and yet someone (I don't know who(m)) has found it necessary to hire this female individual to promote the need for this centre. We all know that we have a variety of venues than can be better utilized around this city, just in case Mayor and counsel have forgotten and for the benefit of this new PR person; CN Centre, Civic Centre, Vanier Hall, CNC, UNBC,PG Playhouse. For the most part there are more days and nights in the week that these facilities are UNUSED. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

Posted by: cantaddafter5 on February 24 2011 11:55 PM

The reasons cited for no pay raises in the last 5 years = the cost of business has gone up, the overhead has gone up, business has dropped off, people aren't paying their bills, "our overdue receivables list is higher than it has ever been" Need I say more, obviously I don't have one of those union jobs where the norm is a raise every year (even if it doesn't meet the rising cost of living - it is still a raise)