You should never make decisions because you're mad; they will come back and haunt you. About a year and a half ago I made one of those decisions... to run for council, and now with budget season upon us, I am in the middle of a "haunted house."
Our current situation has council putting forward a 15 per cent increase on utility rates, a 12 per cent general taxation residential increase and a 15.4 per cent tax increase on business. Strangely, there have been no large gatherings of angry citizens boiling tar and plucking chickens, but one can only surmise that in the end these increases will not be well received.
I agree that in the past our municipality along with most others have done a poor job of building the utility reserves to provide funding for the replacement of water and sewer infrastructure. The last council put together a five-year plan to remedy this and they should be commended for this. Along with our current move to complete a long term financial plan, this will provide a stable outlook for the future.
At the beginning of this budget process, I put forth a motion to limit the net tax increase to 5 per cent, and to allow our highly qualified staff to determine the best way to deliver this. Make no mistake that given certain fixed increases from RCMP and labour contracts, this would have left little opportunity for new service levels or projects. This motion was soundly defeated and we have gone through the budget process without much reduction of expenditures.
As a council, we continue to work toward a budget the majority will support, and we have a statutory obligation to do so by early May. At present, I find myself unable to support the proposed tax increases and therefore the budget. How can we decide to spend $200,000 on downtown revitalization by increasing the taxes of the businesses by 15 per cent and expect them to survive to enjoy the revitalized downtown? How can the same seniors that came asking for a grant to cover utilities they couldn't afford pay an additional 12 per cent tax?
Squamish, in its transition from industry to a bedroom community, has lost much economic ability to pay for the wants it now has. In addition, many groups now desire or demand funding for developing their areas, rather than the much more volunteer and donation-based methods of the past.
In my mind, we need to revisit and prioritize our collective expectations and work hard to deliver new revenue sources for the future. We need to draw industry back to Woodfibre, we need to encourage Squamish Terminals to grow, and we must finally get SODC moving forward.
Editor's note: Since Coun. Sander wrote this column, the size of the projected municipal tax increases was reduced. Please see the article "District lowers taxes after outcry" for details.
