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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Tax break wasn’t well-thought-out

Council had months to set out priorities and objectives. They failed to do so, says letter writer
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NEWS BULLETIN file photo

To the editor,

Re: City reduces tax increase to 2.1 per cent, May 3.

When is a tax break not a reason for celebration? When it comes about in an atmosphere of personal bitterness and attacks, without a strategic foundation that looks to the future beyond an election, and when it is put forward by the very same councillors who have wasted an enormous amount of taxpayers’ money on their pet projects and ill-advised personnel decisions.

What the five majority councillors want you to believe is that they stood up for the beleaguered taxpayer by insisting that this year’s tax increase be kept at two per cent. What could possibly be wrong with that? Plenty.

Budgets are planning documents. They are intended to reflect council’s vision and priorities for the community. Council had months in advance to set out their priorities and objectives. They failed to do so, accepting the proposed tax increase until the last minute, when the cameras were rolling. They dumped the whole matter back on staff to come up with a way to keep taxes below an arbitrary percentage. No strategic leadership, no thoughtful process, no vision, no direction.

City budgets balance needs against wants. The community wants it all. The community needs are less. A strong council balances needs against wants and engages in sound fiscal management of the two to achieve a realistic budget. Instead, councillors took the easy way out by axing staff positions because they had neither the skill, knowledge or political will to achieve tax savings through a more nuanced approach to fiscal management.

They portrayed themselves as being the sole council members concerned with taxpayers’ burden when, in fact, it is their conduct over the past four years that has cost taxpayers thousands in unnecessary expenditures on lawyers’ fees to defend ill-considered staffing decisions, leave with pay for the CAO and CFO, still undisclosed expenses to promote a self-serving multiplex and hockey weekend that broke the bank with little to no lasting community benefit. In short, this tax break is like a pickpocket donating five per cent of what he stole from you to your favourite cause.

That is when a tax break is not a reason for celebration.

Sharon B. Speevak, Nanaimo


The views and opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the writer and do not reflect the views of Black Press or the Nanaimo News Bulletin. If you have a different view, we encourage you to write to us or contribute to the discussion below.