I had this great editorial written.
Well, mostly written. Then the power dropped out (not just once but twice) mid-production and I lost the original idea. (Yes, I know, Jesus saves and I should too, preferably every few minutes.)
You would have loved it. It had everything. Drama. Pathos. Romance. A couple wink wink, nudge nudge, know-what-I-mean scenes.
Actually, it had none of that, and you probably would have despised it. It was another open letter to council saying it’s okay to raise taxes. Yes, $300 is a big deal to some people. And increased taxes on the businesses typically means more expensive prices for consumers.
But Tumbler Ridge? By their own admission has the eleventh lowest taxes in the province.
And for two years, during a time when District costs were going up and up, council decided to hold taxes.
In business terms, that’s called stagflation, when income remains the same, but costs go up. You (or in this case, the district) still makes the same amount of income, but the buying power of that income are much reduced.
And yes, I’d love to live in a town where taxes didn’t go up, and prices for goods didn’t go up, but I’d be perfectly happy getting rid of this whole capitalism system. Trouble is I don’t know what would replace it. I kinda like anarcho-syndicalism, but that’s probably because of Monty Python and not due to any deeply held political belief.
I remember a few year’s back, when the idea of not raising taxes was first floated by one councillor. Howe I wish I could remember which one it was….
Anyway. Council was having a fairly spicy debate about the idea. After running around the Maypole one too many times, a five minute break was called, and some of the members of the gallery (this was before council meetings were being streamed reliably, and people still had to go to the meetings if they wanted to know what was happening. Or, you know, they could’ve read the paper. Stop laughing. Some people get their local political news from the newspaper,) went forward to speak to council and tell them they understood the need for the town to raise money, and that they would prefer small, incremental raises to their taxes rather than getting hit with a big tax increase all at once.
Well, it seems the … what’s that expression about the rooster coming home to roost…no, chickens? It seems the chickens have come home to roost. That feels right. Or less wrong. Anyway. Some birds have showed up and are now hanging about. And the logical extension of that idea to not raise taxes is now kicking the district inna proverbial fork, as it were, as here we are staring down the barrel of a 13.5 percent budget increase.
Or, you know, an additional $300 in taxes.
The more I say that number, the bigger it feels. I guess that’s what Councillor Norbury was on about.
He’s one of those councillors looking to hold taxes to a 6.5 percent rise, or about $130 dollars or so (it’s late and I did that off the top of my head, so don’t be quoting that number in a court of law). And that’s a much nicer number than the other one. He says if the number is too big, people will start to fixate on it.
But the question that we have to ask—and that council has been asking for the last few weeks now—is what do we get for $130? What do we get for $300? And what is lost at the one price point vs the other?
We’ve already seen potentially at least part of that answer, with items like a new truck to replace an old truck and the ATV Club getting defunded. But Council is still a long way from 6.5 percent.
And I think I speak for all…well, some, well, okay, for myself at least, I speak for me that as long as I feel that the contribution I am making to the running of the town is bettering the town, I’m okay with paying more in taxes. If the pool stays open…oops, sorry. That’s a bad example.
If the sidewalks are kept in good repair… Nope, not that one, either.
(By the way, is it just me, or has the concept of downtown sidewalk repair fallen completely off the table? Last year, fixing the sidewalks was the big ticket item. This year? Not a word. The trouble, as far as I understand it, is the sidewalks are owned by the businesses for about three feet in front of their buildings. If the district were to go in and fix the sidewalks, it would qualify as…unfair assistance to that business or something like that. Which I think is poppycock; if you’re fixing everyone’s sidewalks, nobody is being treaded special. And if that doesn’t pass the sniff test, then why doesn’t the district offer to buy the sidewalk back from the businesses for a dollar? If the businesses really want that three feet of concrete, there could be a buyback policy in place. I guess the issue there is what happens if not all the businesses buy back the sidewalk? Then the district needs to track which parts of the sidewalks are owned by the district and which part are owned by what company…I guess I see why the issue has run away and hid.)
Anyway. My point simply was: we have been getting Steakhouse service for the last forty years on what amounts to McDonald prices because so much of the tax burden is carried by the mines and heavy industry, and I’m okay with paying a bit more in taxes if it means that everything doesn’t fall to flinders when the mines shut down. Don’t put your tax eggs all in one basket when the turkeys are roasted. Or however that one goes. It’s late. I’m tired.
Before I go, though, congratulations to the winners of our (not one but) two draws. Robbee Cameron and Skye Koenig are going to see Foreigner on us, while Janeth Barker and Diana Vandale are going to the evening show of the Monster Trucks Event. If you’re thinking to yourself “what lucky sons of guns,” keep your eyes on this space, there’s a good chance that we’ll be doing another draw in the not-to-distant future.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.