Taxation

Recent years have seen tax increases of over 5%. This is not sustainable, especially for young families and seniors. The increases were due partly to the fact that in the previous term, Council mandated rates of 1%, 0%, and 1.5%. This was popular of course, but counter-productive, as the City did not bring in enough money to provide expected services or to match the rate of inflation. We have been digging out of that hole since. Unfortunately our citizens are now dealing with high inflation and cost of living, and are struggling. We must therefore limit taxation as much as possible. Taxation must cover infrastructure needs and inflationary costs borne by the City. We need to focus on funding basic services to our citizens of water, sewer, road maintenance, and police and fire services. Unnecessary projects must be put on hold until the economy settles, so we must identify "must have" projects as opposed to "nice to have" projects, and draw the line against adding any further burden to taxpayers. A tax rate above the rate of inflation will not be palatable.