Why YOUR Taxes Will Always Go UP

City Council Only Knows How To SPEND

You might think that city councillors are hard at work trying to follow the cue coming down from senior governments who keep preaching fiscal restraint, but you would be mistaken.

It seems like only yesterday at an FPCOW meeting Councillor Brennan led the charge to spend another $700,000 even though the city manager recommended against it. Funny how these things seem to 'slip' in at the untelevised FPCOW meetings.

At the FPCOW meeting of April 2 council once again demonstrated their desire to dig a little deeper into your pocket, this time to fund what could be described as poor management at the Port Theatre. It is not really clear just how much more the city has agreed to pay the Port Theatre Society to manage the facility, but there is one item in the new agreement that is clear, and that is an increase of $15,000 for the management fee for 2012. Then there is another 2% annual increase for the term of the contract. Just how much this totals was not made completely clear.

More Money Was NOT Necessary

Councillor McKay asked about funds being put into an endowment plan (a fact that had been lost on council until I brought it to their attention) and why those funds were not used to fund the operating shortfall. In other words the Port Theatre has collected $45,000 last year which they are choosing to put into an endowment fund, which no one clearly can tell you the return on, an amount that would more than offset the $15,000 the city has agreed to give them.

So, short version, the Theatre is taking in more money than they are asking for, but are CHOOSING to put in into an endowment fund and city staff and city council are in agreement with them. I doubt if any members of council actually read the financial statements presented by Port Theatre management, and it is so much easier to just say YES, when it is someone else's money you are spending.

The next time the Mayor or Councillor tells you they are trying to hold the line on your taxes, ask them to demonstrate ONE thing that proves what they are saying! What seems to be lost on this bunch, is that every time they say yes to some 'good' project, they are just increasing YOUR taxes again and again and again.