Kelowna: Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 Chuck Poulsen Kelowna.com

City council has pushed tax increases for so long we have become addicted, like watching reality TV. There hasn’t been a municipal election in the 16 years I have been here in which frugality was an issue, unlike most federal and provincial campaigns over the same time. Coun. Andre Blanleil has been the only one who cares about the giant sucking sound council uses to vacuum taxpayer’s bank account. Kelowna needs a new slogan to go with its pinecone-butt logo: “Kelowna: Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word.” We would be stealing that line from the 1910 western song Home on the Range. That would be consistent with the purloined pine cone logo the city, with unabashed gall, still uses all over its webpages.

Between 2000 and 2007, the city’s spending rose 65 per cent, while population growth and inflation combined for an increase of only 34 per cent, states the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “This kind of spending is disrespectful to taxpayers and harmful to communities,” the federation‘s Laura Jones said. “It means property taxes and other municipal fees increase faster than the ability of residents and business owners to pay up.”

Wages account for about 60 per cent of a city’s budget. The CFIB says public sector wages and benefits are 35 per cent higher than their counterparts in the private sector. If you work in the private sector, how do you feel about paying those kinds of wages to civic employees when your own income is so much less? “There’s a complete disconnect between the salaries and benefits in the public sector and the private sector,” said Jones. “It’s completely unfair to taxpayers.” This kind of excess is not sustainable. Take that, all of you sustainites.

Mayor Sharon Shepherd said the survey doesn’t consider that municipal spending increases can be driven by increasing public demand for services. “Municipalities look at the level of service their citizens want and demand,” Shepherd said. “Our budgets are based on the needs that have been identified.” Identified by whom? Certainly not by public referendum, which the City of Kelowna regards as the Black Plague of public participation.

The CFIB poses a legitimate question: “Have municipalities allowed too many services to be considered important to the well-being of the community, when in fact they belong on a “nice-to-do” list, not a “need-to-do”?

No one runs for council on a “reduce taxes” platform. Such candidates would provide some thrust and parry to the snoozefests we go through every three years. All we get now are more pie-in-the-sky lefties on council. The city is in negotiations with its staff. That could be an opportunity to reverse over-expenditures on public service pay. But I expect city council will again call it Christmas for city employees. Council will look at other municipalities which have raised pay beyond value and keep the upward spiral going. Kelowna council does not seem to believe in the law of gravity.

Some people respond to tax increases differently, such as the good burghers of the U.S. state of cheeseheads and suds, Wisconsin. A proposal before an assembly committee hearing that state would raise the tax on beer. The tax on a bottle of beer in Wisconsin is six cents. A state representative wants to raise it to nine cents. The extra money would be used for law enforcement, and treatment and prevention costs associated with alcohol abuse. That seems reasonable but the tax increase has created such a kerfuffle that the Democrat-controlled state assembly will likely defeat it. I raise the item only to contrast it with the lily-livered acquiescence that Kelowna councillors show toward automatic tax increases.