Let's Add A Line Called 'Double Talk': One Man's Opinion

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 03:45 AM

How about we create a new line on your home tax form that says ’Mayor salary and Expenses’, or for that matter while we are at it ’Councillors salaries and expenses’.

The taxes obtained from that item could only be used for that purpose - paying for their salaries and expenses - that way if we don’t like what they do, we could ask to have that line scratched from the budget come budget time.

That is how stupid, stupid, stupid, the idea of a special line for roads is in the city taxes.

Is the real problem that we in this city continue to grow our debt at leaps and bounds and we need some new innovative ways to get the money without, well, saying that we really got it.

We could have a special line for say, recreation, how about dog control, or maybe even trips to foreign countries - all the money obtained that year from the tax line must go to traveling, and if we haven’t gone on enough trips one year, we wouldn’t ever think of moving that money over to general revenue now would we?

We owe a lot of money - that’s plain and simple and, instead of getting handle on our spending, the city brass are trying to convince you that you need a tax increase. Well, not really, after all is a special line, but of course it still will be paid by the same homeowner on the same tax notice.

We are growing our debt, seems like we never ever thought about doing something about that.

There is more, the average home price according to the Hall, is about $135,000, now that - because of an increase in assessments is actually around $170,000 - will they be adding that 4% increase on the old assessment which is what they use when advertising, or on the new assessment which would add, Gee Whiz, $126.92 dollars a year on your taxes, not fifty bucks as has been suggested.

Oh, did I forget to mention we already face a 2 ½ % increase, then there is the wish list at 2 %, and then that increase in garbage costs, that’s .60 %, now what does that add up to?

Why not cut the cloth to fit at City hall... Hey, maybe we could even have a special line in the budget for ’Cloth Cutting’. It could only be used for that purpose.

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

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Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: whynotyou on February 21 2007 8:28 AM

One question: Where are all the tax dollars we have already submitted for the purpose of "fixing our roads"?? China??

Posted by: whynotyou on February 21 2007 8:38 AM

Also, what happened to the Terasen Gas thing? Something about a trade-off regarding road repairs??

Why did I get a call from a "Satellite" company in Colorado with an offer to sell me gas from Terasen at a fixed and cheaper rate than I am paying purchasing directly from Terasen Gas?

Posted by: Mcfly on February 21 2007 10:29 AM

How about a line stating ....... " Money pissed away on useless crap by the mayor"

Posted by: Mcfly on February 21 2007 10:31 AM

ps. I was Marty on here, but sems my computer was hacked and now i cannot log in under that name, so changed it to mcfly....just a heads up for ya all. : )

Posted by: Gofaster on February 21 2007 1:02 PM

What a great bunch of ideas there Ben!
I agree that we should have some say on where our tax dollars go....China isn't one of them....

Posted by: Palopu on February 22 2007 8:46 PM

I dont think that we should overlook the fact that it was the City, Mayor, and Council that started borrowing money for road repairs in the first place. They are now saying that maybe this is not a good idea. Why did they change their minds.

I think they are making room for more borrowing for other things, and therefore are trying to find another way to get the roads fixed.

There is far to much movement of money and taxes in this City, and we need to take a time out and maybe have an in depth audit to see where our money is coming from, and where it is going.

We recently had Council ok taking 195,000.00 per year out of gaming revenue, and putting it into a fund for the 2011 Western Canada Games, without so much as a *by your leave* from taxpayers. They also went ahead with a bid for these games without any debate or input from taxpayers in the City, or with a comprehensive analysis of how much it will cost us.

As far as I know once any revenue comes into the City it is considered the same as tax dollars and has to be spent according to the same rules and regulations that govern tax revenue. This to me would indicate that expenditures would have to be set up and approved in a budget etc; If we do not have this control then we are in essence giving the Mayor and Council free rein to spend money as they see fit. Much like what happened with the Replay board at the CN Centre. The money was borrowed from some legacy fund, and is supposedly interest free, and supposedly doenst cost the taxpayer anything. This of course is not true.

Someone who knows a lot more than me about this type of expenditure can maybe explain it better, but I suggest that we have to put the breaks on the continuing spending by Council.

A case in point might be the fact that this City was **picked** to host the 2010 World Winter Cities Assoc for Mayors conference. This was announced by city officials Jan 19,2006 while the Mayor was on his way back from Changchun, China.

The Mayor showed a video produced by Initiatives Prince George and a slide show with himself as speaker, and got the conference over one other City.

My point is that we have gone ahead and booked a Conference in Prince George which will be attended by (maybe) 300 delegates and will apparently have a trade show coinciding with the conference, however I havent heard one word as to how much this conference will cost taxpayers. Again I suspect that we are spending tax dollars into the future without going through the proper procedures.

What if this conference was to cost taxpayers $500,000.00 shouldnt we know this ahead of time.