Canadian politicians have by and large proven themselves to be lousy stewards of our money and tone-deaf to public outcry as it strives to correct what often amounts to wilful blindness on the part of our bureaucrats and elected leaders.
Eventually, something has to give, and we don鈥檛 mean pitchforking more of our hard-earned money to appease government鈥檚 volcanic appetite for waste and related mismanagement.
性视界传媒鈥檚 current council 鈥� some of its members alumni from the previous council 鈥� took a verbal hammering at Monday鈥檚 finance committee public hearing from angry residents who鈥檝e finally dug in their heels and said 鈥渆nough鈥� after the politicians and bureaucrats presented what would have been an absurd property tax hike.
Entering the meeting, taxpayers were looking at a 17.5 per cent property tax hike on top of a three per cent increase in utility fees. They gave council what-for, beyond weary of inflation, multi-level taxation, government bloat, more expensive groceries and housing costs, more expensive you-name-it, and basically paying more to receive less.
鈥淗ow can you sleep at night?鈥� one woman demanded to know, 鈥渂y robbing homeowners? We are not homeowners, we are home slaves and we are puppets.
鈥淧lease control your expenses, OK, I beg you,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat you want me to touch your feet? You think you are above God? You are not.鈥�
Now that鈥檚 frustration. And there鈥檚 plenty of that to go around.
To be fair, while council took the heat it didn鈥檛 start the fire. One councillor noted that when the previous council took 性视界传媒鈥檚 reins of power in 2018, the city owed $115 million. A little more than four years later, it鈥檚 $358 million.
Anyway, council heroically responded by sending the budget back to staff with the instruction that it returns with a tax hike of less than 12.5 per cent.
In essence, especially in this financial climate, that鈥檚 like dishing up a fat lip instead of a black eye.
edit@surreynowleader.com
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