JUST ONE MORE BURDEN TO HAUL DOWN LIFE’S HIGHWAY

The headline in today’s weekly newspaper, seared like a branding iron on my chest. Our town council has pared down this year’s tax hike to 8.9 percent. I’m pretty sure most readers of this headline, would have reacted the same as I did.......reading the article twice to make sure it wasn’t a typo, before screaming out loud, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more.”

It wasn’t a typo. It was the new reality of a new council. And I had such high hopes!

My disconnect with them, is that they undoubtedly think they did a terrific job, slashing the initial “committee grab” for money, by a whopping five percent. Five percent isn’t whopping by the way. I was being sarcastic. I’m thinking otherwise, that they did a crappy job. And it’s not over yet either. It might be higher. There’s still some begging going on, so I’m expecting more searing news from town hall in the near future..

The problem is a simple one. The previous council, while warned by ratepayers, went on a spending spree that involved opening a new town hall, giving the old hall to the local fire department, taking federal money to build a new pool / recreation complex, (but having to do it on short notice, or risk losing out), with the belief that we would be, on the bankable side, gaining all kinds of new development that would increase the tax base. Well, that hasn’t quite happened just yet, because there was this recession that blew in from the south.

The problem is that our town is going through some major economic changes, and the main street has suffered from the development of new commercial pods.....and from those inevitable changes of fortune every main street, in North America, has faced in recent history. But complicating this is the fact we spent too much, as a municipality, for too long, and now we’re having to face, on one hand, departmental cutbacks, and on the other, an 8.9 percent, or higher tax increase. Those on fixed incomes are facing a tough road ahead, and I’m not satisfied town council appreciates just how this, and the layering-on of other fiscal pressures, are creating some serious social /economic problems in our midst. Much of this collateral damage of the citizenry, is going to be heaped onto social services and to the local Food Bank, so generously operated by the Salvation Army. While some folks debate the value of a trolley, to connect the commercial pods with the mainstreet, I’m pretty sure that if it requires an increase in the tax rate for 2011, we’ll have our own home-grown rebellion foisted upon town hall.

What is offensive, is that council is not stating the obvious......that the debt and spending activities that got us into the 8.9 percent tax number, is the handiwork of a past council. While I do expect the present, new and hopefully improved council, is trying to deal with crisis-financing, to please committee chairs, they need to explain clearly to the citizens, who will have to haul this tax burden into the future, just how poor the previous governance was on towing the line.

In the case of our brand new pool / recreation complex, the money came from a federal source?, and was hinged on a hurry-up plan that demanded adherence to strict time-lines. What it did was create a panic to get gears in motion. Important stuff, like a high water table, apparently didn’t adhere to the strict time protocol. How dare it be there....in the way of progress! Nothing at all should have been fast-tracked just to snag the offering of instant cash. What have we all been told about temptation, and reasons we should be wary of anything too good to be true? While to many in this community, and I am in the minority, not accepting the money offer, for a long dreamed-of pool, would have been a blasphemous act. Downright “anti-hometown!” Yet if I’m not mistaken, the Lake of Bays turned down money to construct a large warehouse-type facility, to be erected in the municipality, for some use by the G-8, that was graciously declined by council. I think it might have become a central Muskoka archives, although I stand to be corrected. At the time, councillors could not support acquiring a new building, and then being responsible for its maintenance and operation evermore. Turning down money seemed a terrible thing to do. But not really. They knew what they could afford in the future, based on their ability to fairly tax constituents. We could have survived several more years without a new pool, and found or raised funds required to build exactly what we wanted, when we could absolutely afford it. With new site operating costs, and a tight budgets for the foreseeable future, I hope the new centre will fall tidily within a restrained budget. I think Parks and Recreation folks are in for an eye-opening experience, when the invoices start rolling in, during those first years of trial and error operation.

We find ourselves in a bad situation because of so many other substantial cost increases from fuel and food, to water, sewers and hydro. The tax burden is becoming a serious concern and one likely to carry on for years. When budgets are cut, and projects shelved, they return with a fury. With huge and unfair increases in property assessment values, in addition, this isn’t going to be a one year tax event. For a lot of folks just barely surviving, all increases are threatening and hurtful. And what I want to see from council, is an appreciation that justifying the increase in their own minds, doesn’t make it acceptable in ours.

I would love to see town councillors dawdle a while, over at the main street Food Bank, possibly asking a few questions of volunteers......and learning by blunt immersion, that what they perceive to be a prosperous, progressive town, is actually one that is suffering, the result of blatant indifference.