Reader Response Forum
20/11/2009 00:35
Taxpayers Respond To Mayor’s Reply
Hi Don:
The Mayor's response is predictable. At the Town hall meeting on the budget, one fellow spoke who has lived in St. Albert off and on since the 60's. He said St. Albert had high taxes each time he has moved back and the Mayor and Council of the time were singing exactly the same tune .... we need more business. Yet nothing has changed: the 90/10 ratio is the same now as it was then and we are even more over taxed.
The Mayor also keeps saying that we have better services and this justifies higher taxes. To a limited degree that is true, when one speaks of trails, and street plowing, and parks.
But I don't think that is the fundamental cause of the bloated budget we have. Rather look at the money pit that Servus Place is. It alone amounts to over $5 million in capital repayment and losses annually. That's almost 2% of total city expenditures. Then we see the debacle that was the refurbishment of Riel Park ... at over $28 million its 230-240% over its original estimate of $8.4 million. Add to this the poor decision to build Ray Gibbon Drive without having a signed deal with the Provincial government for funding. Or for building it in a highly sensitive environmental area. This is a huge addition to our debt and debt servicing costs. Look at staff levels which went up 52% in 7 years. Salaries increased faster, by 85%. This added $21 million to make a total salaries budget of $45.9 million, 35.6% of total expenditures in 2008. Add to this the purchased manpower embedded in "Contracts and Services" which went up by 97% to $18.1 million in the same period. 10% growth in population and 3% in dwellings don't justify these increases.
Nor did these types of expenditures improve services a whole bunch in comparison to 2002. For example, the public works folks still need an extra $1million in operating and $3/4 million in capital just to restore service levels to what they were in the past. So where is the money gone? Some examples of department expenditures 2002-2008:
- Planning and Development up by 276%
- Recreation and Parks, up by 230%
- Utility Services up 107%
- Transportation and Roadways, up 102%
- Protective Services, up 97%
It's only Council and the taxpayers vote that can stop the profligate spending by this administration. Council has an opportunity to step up to the plate next week on the off-site levy decision, or the taxpayer will have another $95.5 million of infrastructure spending downloaded on us to develop the annexed lands. This is despite Council's promise that the taxpayer would not pay for the cost of developing these lands. And we hope that Council will direct administration to decrease its spending. The Mayor will ask where? An answer .... require zero base budgets and you will probably find out!
Lynda Flannery
President
St. Albert Taxpayers Association
SINC SAYS:
Lynda, those increases are truly obscene, yet this mayor and council continue to defend an administration gone nuts with spending.
Bits ’N Pieces From Our Readers
Hi Don,
Saturday evening W5 did a segment about Lyme disease in Canada. In my opinion they did a great job. http://www.ctv.ca/w5
Just got an email saying that a young man contacted Canlyme www.canlyme.com because he recognized his rash as being like the one he saw in the show and went to emergency at local hospital, happens the doctor he saw had seen the show too, gave him antibiotics and the advice to contact Canlyme.
Now if only all doctors would watch the show perhaps there would not be any more people becoming chronically ill with the damn disease!
Anon
St. Albert
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Don,
I have seen a newspaper report that the best selling household items in The U.K. are toilet rolls with the European Flag imprinted on each sheet. Can this be true?
How pro-Europe can they get?
Norm In The UK
Wannabe Cop Is On The Job
Welcome
to St. Albert!
A friend was over at our house yesterday morning doing some work in my back garage.
He backed his pickup into my driveway so he could load some equipment when leaving.
The pickup of course is long, so it stuck out over the sidewalk by the edge of the curb.
That’s when the Wannabe Cop showed up on our quiet crescent and slapped a $60 ticket at 9:41 a.m. on the truck.
Had The Wannabe wanted, he could have seen my friend working in the garage through the glass windows from where he stood to put the ticket on the windshield.
He could have tapped on the glass and given him a warning, but no, he had to use his “authority” and issue the fine for blocking a sidewalk that scarcely a handful of people a day use.
If you’re reading this Officer Wannabe, you missed the real crime happening on our street.
You see, you missed an abandoned car that has been parked, unmoved for the past month. (That’s a crime too. isn’t it?) Had you really been doing your job, you would notice things like that.
Or if you check closely, you’ll find a car with BC plates that has been driving here in Alberta for over two years now. (Last I checked, that too is a crime, or is it? It’s gone unpunished for 30 months now.)
Think you can come back and issue tickets for a couple of “real crimes”?
There’s lots more of it here in our quiet little corner of the city.
