Editor:
Re: Property tax bill up 3.5%, Feb. 3
Is anyone anywhere surprised by the inability of Delta council and its lackluster management staff to keep spending in check?
Every year they come cap in hand floating a budgetary trial balloon under cover of the canard that we're in great shape since Delta's increase is not as bad as some of the other under-performing municipal governments. Here's a news flash, Mayor Lois Jackson: being in the top half of a very mediocre lot is not an accomplishment. Since 2000, my property taxes have increased by well over 100 per cent. What I charge my customers has remained constant or declined over the same period. I suspect many others are in the same boat.
In this volatile and uncertain environment, why is it that these people are incapable of holding spending in check, never mind reducing it? Is it that they've already wrung every efficiency out of the municipal operation? Even the most casual observer of municipal work projects knows that's a process that's never even been on the radar for these folks.
This year's 3.5 per cent increase is a huge 219 per cent more than the 2015 Canadian rate of inflation. At a time when the cost of fuel is dropping like a stone along with the country's overall economic prospects, we expect reductions, not increases.
Personally, I'm sick to death of the firing-offence performance of these unaccomplished career politicians we grudgingly restore to office every three years. They need to do better or step aside.
Doug Floer
