Editor: Year after year, Langley City council deems it necessary to wring more tax dollars from its citizens.Our population has not appreciably increased, but we add staff to the staff we added last year, and our mayor comments that in order to reduce taxes the city would have to reduce services and staff.When things get tough in any business and income is less than expenditures, guess what? You reduce, not add, staff, and if possible you reduce, not add, service .You do not commit to capital expenditures with no payback, such as the $8.5 million 196 Street overpass, or the $6.5 million rebuild of Timms Centre, and you monitor projects that are ongoing so you don’t go over budget, as we did by by $1.2 million on 208 Street.Budgets are drawn by staff and ratified by council. Perhaps because so many of our council have been in office for such a long time, they have lost the zeal to push for cuts. Or perhaps our little four square mile city is just too small to continue to go it alone. The Times is conducting a poll on its website questioning whether you are in favour of amalgamation or not. At last look, it was 90 per cent in favour.I challenge the present Langley City council to at least include in this year’s election a question, asking voters if they back a study to see if there is a benefit to amalgamate.For too long, some have had our heads buried in the sand, hoping that this issue will go away. It will not. In fact, the call for amalgamation is getting louder by the day.It is time to deal with it and the question could easily be framed as follows “Do you approve of the City of Langley commissioning a study to determine the benefits of amalgamation with the Township of Langley? — Yes or No.”It will be interesting to see if our present council has the courage to take up the challenge. If they are confident that the answer will be no, they will include the study question. If they are not, they won’t. What’s your bet as to whether we will see the question asked?Don Woode,Langley
