Editor:
Re: White Rock holds the line on financial plan, May 14
I do not agree that the City of White Rock’s property tax increase of 3.1 per cent is a “hold-the-line” affair.
First, from what I have witnessed, the expenditures were not rigorously investigated by this council.
Staff put out its Xmas wish list of wants and council basically delivered it.
Without going into too much detail, there were many areas where accumulated surpluses and more staff hiring could have been trimmed back to reach the easy goal of a zero per cent increase.
The only possible justification for any increase was for council and staff’s increase in salaries, but these could have been easily covered in a real “hold-the-line” budget.
The official rate of inflation for Canada is .61 per cent this year with a 1.21 per cent increase next year.
So why this council feels a need to increase property taxes 3.1 per cent is beyond my comprehension.
Why they should be using Vancouver’s rate of inflation of 2.9 per cent, rather than the Canadian rate, speaks to fiscal mismanagement.
We are not Vancouver.
There is a $42.8 million backlog of capital projects, some dating back two to three years, which shows you that this council and previous councils are demanding way too much in taxes from White Rock taxpayers.
So much so, they will not properly pace infrastructure repairs. (This is) far beyond what is needed on a year-to-year basis.
Garry Wolgemuth, White Rock
