By Pepper Parr
September 17th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
The number was put on the table.
Wait for it.
4.95 % as a “possible” tax increase.
A tax increase of 4.5% just did not taste all that good. But when the numbers were added up – it was at least in the wind.
Mayor Meed Ward wanted to make sure that the number was not something council was signing off on – that was not the kind of tax increase that she wanted to be known for.
Treasurer Joan Ford made it clear that she wasn’t chiseling that number in stone.
She did say that: ”If there is no room to cut anywhere we don’t want you to be surprised – and think we didn’t tell you.”
The Mayor also said that she didn’t want to even think in terms of reducing service levels – she wanted to be able to increase service levels.
That would be called sucking and blowing on the same water hose.
Clean up the dead wood at the City of Burlington.
Our Mayor needs to stop her excessive non essential spending.
City workers need to be accountable.
The City of Burlington needs to recognize that a taxpayer is not a customer.
Stop spending money fighting a developer when the fix is already in.
I heard the Mayor ask staff to look for tax savings without impacting services. When one is cutting down their expenses at home something must go. This request seemed so unrealistic and “borrowing” from reserve funds that in some cases have to be repaid is not the answer.
If this is at all possible, I would like to know how to accomplish it? Are we going to see a new “Covid Levy”, similar to the Levy for the hospital that was supposed to end when we reached the goal but now has turned into an” infrastructure levy”?
The money to run the city has to come from somewhere. We must remember that any Federal or Provincial monies “given” to Municipalities come from us – the taxpayer.
This is a typical political maneuver, put out a “possible” high tax increase and everyone breathes a sigh of relief when it comes it at only(???) 3%. In this reality of the covid pandemic, City Hall needs to provide relief to taxpayers, not see taxpayers as a bottomless pit to be further mined. This pandemic has imposed huge costs on the private sector taxpayers–lost income, lost jobs, bankruptcies and business shutdowns; the economy is in poor shape, just limping along but what do the leftie-Liberals at City Hall want to do? Raise Taxes!!! This is insanity. It’s time for City Hall to shift to a new paradigm–provide services at lower costs which may mean the municipal government has to start feeling some of the pain–remember we are all in this together….Or are we?