If the economy is going so well locally and in the province, why are taxes rising evey year 2 - 4 %. I guess it's so Kinsley can have his taxpayer funded holidays to travel the world while we sit at home for the year trying to save the money to pay ever rising taxes, gas prices, food costs, heating bills, day care and other bills while wages remain the same.

The issue of who pays what for taxes has to be offset by what they get for those taxes. Lets see a comparison of major infrastructure items like water, sewer, roads, recreational facilities, performance centers and so on before we judge what value we are getting for our taxes.

PG's Mayor is truly the winner in the most amount of miles traveled by a mayor of a small city.

When it comes to comparing taxes in terms of the rate per $1,000 assessed value, then Prince George turns out to be the highest of the eight communities compared.

In any event this comparing between Cities is fine if you compare everything, otherwise it means nothing. Lets get the following figures and then see where we stand.

Total taxes collected by the comparable communities. Ie; Residential, Commercial Business, and Major Industrial.

Total debt by the comparitive communitys.

Total taxes paid per capita.

I suggest to you that Prince George would end up collecting more in taxes, have more debt, and spends more money than the comparitive communities.

In addition we have to look at the income from Teresan Gas, Transfers from Governments for Gas Tax, Fines, and of course the $2.5 Million gambling revenue.

The budget for 2007 calls for spending of $105 Million. On a straight per capita basis, for 77,200 people in Prince George this means spending of $1360.00 for every man, women, and child in Prince George.

To use the Citys way of showing your costs you could do the following.

Set up a toll on the Cameron St. Bridge, the John Hart Bridge, and the Simon Fraser Bridge . Toll charge $2.00. Now make a statement that the money collected from the Cameron St. Bridge per day is $16,000.00 per day, or an average of $730.00 per year, per user. This is all good information, however it fails to give you the total money collected from the 3 bridges, so you only get part of the picture.

We need to know in exact dollars how much tax is collected from Residential, Commercial business, and Major Industrial to get a better picture of the Citys income and spending. This information should be in dollars rather than percentages.

"I suggest to you that Prince George would end up collecting more in taxes, have more debt, and spends more money than the comparitive communities."

You can do all the suggesting you want. You would be dead wrong!

"We need to know in exact dollars how much tax is collected from Residential, Commercial business, and Major Industrial to get a better picture of the Citys income and spending. This information should be in dollars rather than percentages."

Look at the budget and you will know. The budgets of other cities are on there as well.

While you are at it, to comapre apples to apples, you might want to see how much Kamloops benefits from federal and provicnial road infrastructure funding over the years compared to PG.

Comapring apples to apples precisely in this case is an illusion. There are too many parameters so thst one will never make everyone happy that everythign is covered.

In the meantime, what independent sources, that use exactly the same measuring stick across the province have said is likely the best information we can come up with.

I realize it bursts some people's bubbles and one cannot change their opinions. But that is exactly what they are, opinions, not a report objectively measuring one against another.

"When it comes to comparing taxes in terms of the rate per $1,000 assessed value, then Prince George turns out to be the highest of the eight communities compared."

We have been over and over that one. It is a false measuring stick. It is a falsely applied statistic. It is no different than saying we have the lowest property tax per hectare of city area. Any city which has a larger area per person will likely have the lowest tax per hectare.

It would seem, to some, to be a reasonable measuring stick since the city has to take care of all that land. But it is a wrong way to measure nevertheless.

Right on owl, but try and convince these "bush bunnies" who can't figure where their money goes because they are not capable of anything remotely associated with mathematics.
Talk about fooling some of the people some of the time-well the majority of the folks in Prince George can be fooled enough to make them the laughingstock at Prince George city hall.
Don't bother with any "wake up" calls.
Waste of your good time.

Does it really matter where the tax dollars are coming from? What does matter is that our City is operating in the red. And the only way to rectify this problem is a political solution. The sad thing about this is we do not have the ball to arrive at this juncture. We are hung up in semantics.

Some of us think like those on Council different words but results are the same. There is the Mare (the old timers will get the pun )Zurosiky, Basserman, Sethen,and other fence sitters are all of the same mind. Then there is Munoz and Skakun that would probably listen to suggestions. We had some good candidate during the last election and we passed them by. And Rodgers was one of them. So we got exactly what we deserve.

To look at the Cities debt remember that the loan for Terasen gas was voted on and in favor of by all Councilors. I guess they take one look at how their tax payers live, hell their all in debt up o their eye balls the City may as well join them,

Now as to financial information from the Cities website. The lasts statement is for the year 2003. So they don’t want us to be up to date on their folly. For a city of 72,000+ (2003 count) there are a City Manager, four directors and 18 managers. That adds up to a lot of confusion. However if you do want up dated figures Don Schaffer, city clerk is very helpful and does provide any information you need .

Cheers

You may have some of the lowest taxes of comparable sized cities, but your $$$ for output ratio are hooped.
The City tosses big bucks into things alright. But it sure isn't into roads. PG has some of the most pathetic excuses for road maintenance I can find. PG roads are horrid at the best of times, but winter sucks here.
Seeing a PG plow truck moving through PG with it's blade up is insane, but it happens all the time. Even at the beginning when a bit of snow falls, PG never fails to surprise me how it can ignore a situation.It got capped off for me when I had to chain up my VanKam truck, just to make it through 5th and Central.
I don't pay taxes there thankfully. Cause if I did, there would be hell to pay at city hall. I might even run for council if I was in PG.

"I might even run for council if I was in PG."

Please move to P.G.! We need your help - please run in the next municipal election!

Extra incentive for our mayor and city council to spend taxpayers' money as carefully as possible is the fact that the pine beetle epidemic is going to result in the evaporation of a large number of jobs in Prince George. This in turn will result in a very significant drop in housing prices. While the economy here is very strong right now, and a lot of people might not be too concerned about a 4% tax levy , when the big crunch comes I guarantee you these same people will suddenly become very concerned about how taxpayers' money is being spent.

In addition, UNBC which has been touted as the great future job creator in Prince George seems to be stalling out.

To the mayor and town council: Please think about the future.

As said before: Fame wins elections. Not policy, not capability.

Fame.

reformermike - are you famous? If not you would be one of the poor schmucks with good intentions, and maybe great ideas and skills, who does nothing but split the vote with the other non-famous poor schmucks.

Plow truck with the blade up? It is called "putting on the hours".

Hmmmm. I am a long term renter with a mobility challenge, an ordinary long term resident of Prince George BC Canada. I also do not own a conventional vehicle. Disability took that away from me. This is not what this is about.

If any of the budget was spent correctly, Ft George park and other revenue attracting tourist venues about this city would be kept clear, in good repair and accessible year round.

Our city has grown since I first decided to stop here in Prince George well over 12 years ago. Before my disability I would travel into Prince George constantly to conduct business. Even spent time working around the radar station CFS down the blackwater for a spell...

Many miles of road have been added all about town. I love this city in the summer, my accessible transport travels many miles around the most beautiful areas of the city. Even when it rains, I get out and see things and sights that you only dream of. They do exist around this city, but you have to look hard.

These new roads open up many areas to ride and explore; I do not pay for gasoline. It's like Cruising when I was young and able to afford basic luxuries like cars and gas for cars. Gas back then didn't kill the environment either. But again, that's off track.

In the winter (and it's not due to any SADS or anything) this city sucks. Taxes that are raised and money that is spent does nothing for me or my quality of life. Snow has been falling at a huge rate this year; several record snowfalls have occurred. Scientists tell us that this will continue for centuries after now. Kyoto (sp) is a big drive nationally, is it too late? Off track again.

You folks burn way more gas in winter; even when the streets are clear. The cold weather makes gasoline and electricity not very efficient. Locals suffer unknowingly misguided and blinded in rage by having to shell out even more money in taxes; failing to notice that simple things like clear roads would make life so much easier and productive.

In all this growth and expansion, has any money (other then repairs) been put into equipment to maintain these roads? Why is 20th Avenue (The "Gateway" itself and east of it) one of the last areas of the city to be cleared of snow? As a citizen of this city I appreciate the sidewalks cleared and roads plowed so I don't have to ride in the traffic lanes. City works hard I am told; it is true. A small force always works overtime to keep up and when they get here, it's a "bang up" job. Bravo Zulu, Snow removal team. May your budget grow and please spend it wisely and hurry up to my place!

Often, it is plowed within 3 blocks of my place. 3 blocks in the snow is like 40 miles worth of gas to you. Once I had to return home after one block to charge up.

The property taxes you folks pay; as well as a portion of my overpriced rent goes towards helping to create the beautiful, prosperous city that we all share... Where I am free to move about and help contribute to society without polluting it. In a cats rear end!!! Many times I am trapped in my high rise apartment, watching cars fight their way to their destinations along 20th. breathing your foul exhaust. Prosperity east of town adds more pollutants to us peasants.. I am reminded that even mobility has difficulties at these times. Why don't our dollars go into improving this end of things. I think that is the most important thing we should spend money on.

One Man's opinion; a face in the crowd. Nuff said.