Twp. Ole Boys Club Should Read "The Great Gouge"

The Vancouver Sun editorial today (page a11) by Harvey Enchin says ,"Municipal councillors should be focused on fiscal restraint and accountability. Instead, they are driven by polls they commission that ask loaded questions like this one from 2004: What would you prefer, an increase in taxes or a cut in municipal services?". In Langley these type of Municipal poll questions occur each and every year to help our Councillors justify our enormous tax hikes. Then they justify the big tax hikes by saying " taxpayers tell us in polls they they don't want services cut!". Enchin also in the Sun has these quoted gems;

• Our property tax system is unfair, arbitrary and regressive.
• It's time for councils to adopt rational budgeting rules
• Budgeting should be about frugally allocating resources, not spending increasing amounts of taxpayers' money every year.
• Municipal councillors should be focused on fiscal restraint and accountability.
• Why not just deliver municipal services more cost-effectively?
• Both federal and provincial governments are subject to the scrutiny of an auditor-general. Municipal governments should face the same kind of review to encourage fiscal discipline
• An even better suggestion is to limit the increase in taxes to the rate of the consumer price index, a proposal championed by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Does any of the preceding sound familiar? It should! Cllr. Kim Richter has been advocating all of this for years and this week even also proposed the CTF model of limiting tax increases to the cost of living. Remember this is the motion the rest of council did not second or even want to discuss! Obviously this whole concept that Richter talks about, Enchin talks about and the CTF talks about is foreign to the Mayor Alberts ole boys club council slate. (LFP thanks Methinks for this article lead.)
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