In the next week or so, Yorkton property owners will find out that their taxes will go up, on average, about 10 per cent this year. And the blame will be put on the provincial government for cutting out, without any advance notice, a major source of city revenue: the surcharge we all pay for power and gas bills, which shows up on the bills as a Municipal Surcharge Tax.
On average, because it depends on what kind of property you own. Tax increases are not applied equally to residential property, commercial property, industrial property and farm land.
Putting the blame on Mr. Wall and Co. has some legitimacy, because cutting that level of funding from the city places a huge burden on us. When you’re counting on things staying the same, when you’re not told they’re going to change, and then have that sprung on you is grossly unfair, and underhanded. We’ll still be paying the surcharge tax, but it will be going to the province, not the city.
Having said all that, as is usually the case, there is a “but”.
And it is this: But the city could have done much more to re-examine its own budget to deal with this, and reduce the mill rate increase. They talked about it – in secret, which is another problem – but in the end very little has changed in the level of spending at city hall.
Here’s what could, and should have happened when faced with that level of revenue shortfall: start from scratch and justify every program and every staff position in the city.
Council should have taken a close look at everything the city does, every service it provides, every pay cheque it writes, and satisfy themselves and the taxpayers that there is good reason to spend the money. If the justification for program, services and jobs are marginal, or questionable, cut them.
This needs to be done in public so that people can understand, react and respond to the ideas that are being considered, as Regina city council did.
And this needs to be done by council, because the nature of the administrative bureaucracy is to build empires and protect turf. There is no incentive for the administration to recommend reductions, because they don’t have to face the taxpayers. City council members do.
It’s always easier to go to the trough for more property taxes than to reduce spending.
It’s what business does, because they can’t just demand more money from customers. It’s what good government should also do. It’s called making the tough decisions in tough times.
Yorkton city council and the administration failed the taxpayers by not doing that. From what the public has seen, they wrung their hands, did a lot of talking in a lot of meetings, blamed somebody else, and didn’t take responsibility.
So we end up with a 10 per cent tax increase -- more for those whose property assessment increase exceeded the average for Yorkton.
And that’s not the end of it. The provincial government has already given notice there will be more of the same for two more years.
Five members of this council were elected on the promise of less complacency and closer oversight. It’s fair to ask: what happened between October and now?
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