This is the time of year when Delta council looks at taxes and budgets for the upcoming year. While many items occur naturally, there is always a debate about how to control costs. Along with others, I would like to "get my oar in" on this now. Before the detail, I want to recognize the considerable efforts that council and senior staff go to in holding down taxes. It's a real challenge.
I pulled my old tax bills for the period 2007 to 2011. I looked at both the totals and the individual listed items. I looked at what the Bank of Canada says the inflation rate has been over the same period. I then compared this with our taxes - both overall and itemized for the five-year period.
Over the past years tax increases have exceeded inflation by a considerable margin. Since 2007, total Delta taxes have increased 24 per cent. The Delta council portion increased by 19 per cent while the school tax increased by a whopping 35 per cent. The utility taxes have increased 34 per cent over that same five-year period.
Inflation over the same period increased 7.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the average pensioner had their pension - if lucky enough to have one - increase by only about eight per cent. So where do we keep digging to find more and more each year?
I have great difficulty coping with the hike we've seen in the province's school tax.
Despite declining enrollment, the taxes have increased over 30 per cent in five years. Does this mean if enrollment continues to drop, we will continue to see higher taxes?
That doesn't make sense to me.
Digging a bit deeper, one finds the municipal payroll has roughly one out of four employees earning more than $75,000 per year. Last year this meant some 260 people went home with pay cheque over $75,000.Twenty-two were paid more than $125,000.
Of all money going to payroll, over half of the dollars went to those earning over $75,000. If my research is correct, the number of employees earning more than $75,000 per year grew from 109 to 260 in five years.
None of these numbers includes the police department, which has an exemption in law from disclosing this data.
Like a lot of organizations, the need to find better and more efficient ways of doing things is upon council. Perhaps we have to ease back on some things. Perhaps we need to find new and better ways to do things. If folks are to be paid more each year, their productivity must also increase as much, or more.
I suggest it's time to ease off on the poor taxpayer. Hold the line on taxes, on school taxes and on utility bills. "As of now, no tax bills above inflation for the next three years."
I'll vote for that!
