So, they just couldn’t do it, eh?
City council just had to go with a tax increase. Couldn’t find some way to lob off the need to tax us 1.69 per cent more than last year? That’s less than two per cent. There was no way to find enough savings to forestall spending 1.69 per cent more tax dollars?
Of course, that 1.69 per cent increase includes dipping into the city’s general operating surplus for $200,000. So, in a way, it’s more than 1.69 per cent but if the majority of councillors felt they could not avoid dipping into surplus for $200,000 how much more would they need to forgo the 1.69 per cent increase?
In reality, a 1.69 per cent increase is not much and most people can afford it. But when you add it onto the steady but small increases over the last few years, then it adds up to a signficant amount.
However, not increasing taxes at all this year would have been a symbolic gesture that would have gone a long way to restoring confidence in the municipal government and acknowledge how much taxpayers have been asked to contribute over the last five years. Would the cuts necessary to hold tax increases to zero – even with dipping into surplus – have made all that much difference to the functioning of the municipality? Not likely.
No, given the message sent in last fall’s municipal election that Mayor Andy Adams pointed out was loud and clear, then an albeit symbolic gesture of a zero increase, especially when we’re so close to zero anyway, would have been a powerful statement.
