Financial Issues

City's Revenue Neutral Taxation Policy

The City has enacted a policy that in effect protects the City's revenue flow from declining as a result of negative internal or external events such as inflation and depressions . The budget has inflation protection built in regardless of where the economy, wages prices etc. are going. Even giveaways to developers, e.g. waiving impost fees, taxes lost as a result of vacancies in commercial properties or declining revenues from other tax categories such as businesses moving out of town, are all added to the revenue required from the Residential Class. The cities revenues are bullet proof. The incentive for tight management of the individual internal organization budgets is compromised by built in guarantees. This issue is further exacerbated by the lack of detailed budget analysis. Budgets are basically determined by what was spent the year previous. There is no in depth scrutiny. This is another policy area that deserves taxpayers attention.

Shifting Multi Residential / Residential Tax Ratios

City Council, with the last budget (April 2006) , completed the shifting of historic Multi Residential mill rate points to the Residential Class. This places them on a one to one basis. Historically, there was approximately a one to three ratio (3x for apartments). The logic for the rate differential was self evident. If a large apartment complex were to be placed in Strathcona Park subdivision, it would require serious upgrading of every imaginable service and utility, including Police and Fire Department etc. It only seems reasonable that a large portion of the tax burden for upgrades should fall on the developer. Why should the residents of Strathcona Park who would probably suffer a degradation in life style, pay one red cent more in taxes. They have already paid several times over for the existing services.

This shift in tax burden from the Multi Residential to the Residential class happened as a result of a hired lobbyist going to Queens Park a few years ago and influencing the Provincial Government to approve the tax shift. The Council and the bureaucracy never did provide a logical rationale in support for the shift and implemented the policy despite protestations.

Increasing the City's Debt Ratio

The previous Council (2000-2003) made a conscious effort to reduce the City's debt level in order to benefit by receiving lower rates on funds borrowed and reduced interest payments. During the last election, the candidates most closely aligned to the business community indicated that they would up the debt levels to speed up some of the infrastructure projects. However, the LVEC issue and the Multiplex issue were not on the radar at that time. These two projects will definitely raise the debt levels and the interest rates and put the good work of the previous Council in jeopardy. Higher interest rates means higher taxes. There needs to be open debate on the debt issue. Taxpayers should be made aware of and be kept up to date on the implications of such policy changes.

TAXPAYERS ARE URGED TO JOIN THEIR LOCAL ELECTORAL DISTRICT ORGANIZATION OF KTA AND WORK TOWARDS TAKING BACK CONTROL OF COUNCIL

(Updated March 30, 2006)