Over the last few years, the term “girl math” has become a popular meme, mostly amongst women describing the rationalizations made to justify indulgent purchases.
The term might have come to us from New Zealand, where a radio show had a segment called “girl math,” People could call in and tell the hosts about things they’d recently bought, and the hosts would find ways to help justify the purchase.
For example: spending an extra $30 to save $15 on shipping? Girl math.
Or: deciding not to spend $25 on an item because you can make it instead, then spending $100 on the tools and materials to make it? Girl math.
Or, finding a pair of shoes that would have cost $100, but they were 20 percent off, then going and having lunch for $20, the lunch is free.
As you can tell, girl math is frequently self-deprecating, poking gentle fun at one’s own decisions.
Of course, this is the internet, and something that was once simply self mocking has of course become a way for some people (read: men) to become critical of others. And this is why, even with girl math, we can’t have nice things.
Girl math is supposed to be light hearted fun and not to be taken seriously, nor should it be used as the basis for making important financial decisions.
It might seem, at first blush that girl math and tax math might be somehow related, that one can creatively fudge the numbers to help one group of people over the other.
In this case, the District not increasing the major industrial tax class by nine percent, like it did to everyone else.
It might seem like council is in the pocket of big mining, but for a couple things.
You see, in the last year, a couple major things have happened. Conuma has moved their mining operations from Wolverine to Conuma. But they haven’t mothballed Wolverine yet, meaning they are still paying taxes on the property.
Quintette, meanwhile, which has been taxes as a non-operational property for the last couple decades is now being taxed as an active mine.
In the process of restarting, they’ve brought in new equipment, revived old buildings and built new ones.
All this and more besides means that, without increasing taxes, major industry (which is mostly, but not totally, the mines) is already paying over six million more this year than last.
Adding nine percent to that? Would see another $700,000 or so.
The district doesn’t need another $700,000. Heck, we don’t actually need another $6.2 million. All that money is doing is going to is reserves.
So, why not keep everyone’s tax rate at zero?
Fair question. And the big reason is eggs.
No, not like Trumps promise that egg prices would go down under his government, what do you mean, I never said that, besides it’s not the American government that’s responsible but global forces and bird flu, even though the reason egg prices were going up under Biden was totally government mismanagement. What’s that over there. Yoink!
What was I saying? Oh. Right. Eggs. As in “don’t put them all in one basket.”
Between last year and this year, the amount of taxes that major industry has risen from 40 to 60 percent.
And sure, I hear you say “let them,” But a few years’ back, certain members of council argued that taxes for residents shouldn’t go up, which seemed a great idea, until last year when taxes wound up spiking by 13.5 percent.
They didn’t go up that much, because council used some money from reserves (there’s that word again) to cover a portion of that, but that meant that a portion of last year’s tax increase had to be shifted to this year.
If we take and defer that, we’ll have to pay it next year, or the year after. And instead of being 3.5 percent, maybe it will be a deficit of 20 percent. Maybe the worst comes to pass and the mines shutter and instead of covering 60 percent of the town’s taxes, major industry is only covering 30 percent, and instead of taxes having to go up nine percent, they have to go up 20 percent. Or 30. Or…?
I mean, I get it. I don’t like having to pay taxes. But I also don’t like having to pay $100 to go out for a fancy dinner with the wife. There are only two things, they say…
But here’s the thing. It all depends on how you look at it. Saying the tax rate for major industry is not going up seems unfair, but it doesn’t take into account that, simply with the changes to infrastructure, major industrial is already paying 140 percent more than last year. It’s the same size piece of a bigger pie.
Let’s put that another way. Historically, the District has said they don’t care what your home is valued, they only want to collect a specific amount in residential taxes, and they use tools like assessed value and mill rates to make that as fair as possible. But what if they did care, and your property value went up 140 percent? Even if the District said they weren’t adding any taxes, you’d still be paying $2459.62 this year, instead of $1117.06. If that were to happen, most of you would be crying bloody murder, even though the tax rate would be the same. (Note: those figures are based on last year’s assessed value and are for illustration only; they should not be used to calculate your taxes this year. Taking financial advice from a writer can lead to bankruptcy. Unsolicited advice my cause diarrhea, vomiting, ED, or bleeding from the eyes. Check with your doctor to find out if fiscal advice found in an editorial is right for you.)
All this is to say, I don’t like having to pay taxes, but, as long as we are going to stick with this financial methodology, I am glad to do so. The roads are kept in reasonable condition, the sidewalks downtown are being replaced, the water runs when I turn on the tap, and municipal government continues to run as it should, providing services in exchange for taxes.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
