Pissing Away Money Like There's No Tomorrow

Are you sitting down?

"A British Columbia family of four could have saved on average $5,302 in municipal taxes..."

Canadian Federation of Independent Business,

Municipal Spending Watch 2013 

Of 153 municipalities in British Columbia, only 10 managed to keep operating spending in line with inflation and population growth in the last decade.

That's 7 per cent of the municipalities in B.C.
Seven per cent.

Over the previous year, Vernon actually reduced its per capita spending by one per cent over the previous year, while Coldstream increased its by five per cent (page 15 of the link provided).

The 25-page report "Municipal Spending Watch 2013" is conducted annually by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. 

It begins: 

A British Columbia family of four could have saved on average $5,302 in municipal taxes over the last 11 years if city councils kept their operating spending to the rate of inflation and population growth.  While operating spending grew at a slower pace than previous years, total real municipal operating spending has increased by 52 per cent from 2000 to 2011, representing $5.4 billion in EXCESS spending far beyond what should be considered as sustainable and fiscally responsible.

As reported in today's The Province by Susan Lazaruk, the CFIB is recommending that municipalities:

• Limit spending hikes to the rate of population growth and inflation.

• Identify "core services" and review them to ensure they're being effectively managed.

• Freeze public sector wages to close the 35 per cent wage gap with the private sector, and,

• Increase the transparency of how financial data is reported. 

Are Coldstream and Vernon listening?
Probably feeling a bit smug that they're not the worst offenders (Vancouver Island...at 46% spending).

But they're far from the best too.


Look at Kaslo in the Kootenays.  Their population grew 13 per cent in the last decade, yet they've been awarded the Most Sustainable Municipality distinction.  Why?  Because they cut back on municipal operating spending per capita by 11 per cent last year alone...in the 11 years of the spending watch report, Kaslo has reduced real operating spending per capita by 9 per cent.  In 11 years!


Congratulations Kaslo...no wonder numerous small businesses have opted to move to Kaslo.
They're not getting gouged with taxes in Kaslo.


Back to core services.
You know...that KPMG core services review that Vernon's politicians read when it arrived, and put on the shelf without determining if Vernon's services were effectively managed.
Makes one wonder why the hell a core services review was done.
More than one letter from a resident chastized City Hall for not releasing the results of the review to the public...you know, the people who paid for it!



As to transparency of financial data, have any of our communities' citizens ever struggled through a Financial Statement for Coldstream or Vernon to learn how much debt each community has?
 
Few of us are accountants, and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) allow sufficient "fuzziness" to make the statements read like Greek to most of us.  Everything balances.  How nice.  Any idea how many millions of dollars Coldstream and Vernon are in debt?  Nope.


"There's a GAP all right," asserts Kia.

Kiss' Self-Assessment

And District of Coldstream councillor Gyula Kiss passes his introspection.

Not surprising, as his introspection lacks external observation which Wikipedia states can be mistaken as testimony for knowledge.

First, his letter to the editor, published November 3, 2013, under "Councillor Responds":

"This letter is in response to the letter published in The Morning Star on Oct. 27 'Greater Vernon is over governed'.

It is very arrogant of a former city councillor to tell the taxpayers of Coldstream that they should give up their chosen form of governance and join the City of Vernon.

He should have learned from the debates of 2008 (website URL provided, but omitted here) that these debates do not work unless each one of the jurisdictions agree to proceed based on demonstrated, tangible benefits to each.

As a Coldstream resident I get the services I need:  water from GVW, sewer services for which I pay the going rate to the city of Vernon and the collection fees to Coldstream. I pay my share for recreation, culture etc. for which I pay the regional district.

My property taxes in 2013 were 10.25 per cent lower than it would have been had my property been located in the city (that's about $2.90 in real figures).

You may think Vernon is over governed and that you have to take up with your council.

Coldstream is not over governed and tries to keep taxes at a level its taxpayers can afford.

So do not covet our way of life from the outside.  If you wish to join Coldstream you may purchase a property and move to Coldstream.  Otherwise let us live as we please."

Gyula Kiss, Coldstream councillor

Apart from the initial surprise of Councillor Kiss using the word "arrogant" to reference a counterpart's opinion, Kiss' introspection is indeed false testimony for knowledge.

"Coldstream’s population grew 10 per cent between 2000 and 2010 but per capita spending...climbed 32 per cent...in Vernon, the population increased 13 per cent and spending per capita went up 53 per cent."

Society for the Future Governance of Greater Vernon

Councillor Kiss would rather circle the wagons.

And he'd rather gouge residents locally than admit provincial money is available --in the form of a one-time grant-- for the ever-increasing infrastructure deficit.

 "That grant is not available under the present local government structure."

Michael Tindall

Councillor Kiss won't tell you that he'd rather tax you locally--and/or reduce services--for the increasing infrastructure deficit than admit there is money available from the provincial government.

But the money is only available if the area forms a single regional municipality.   It's not available under the present local government structure.

"And covet our way of life?" asks Kia, adding "talk about arrogance!" 

Covet means yearning to possess...Coldstream's empire building?  We think not. 

 

We've all seen what Coldstream does to people they think can afford stuff.

Discontent versus Complacency

Today's Morning Star story on the amalgamation petition's deadline had Bruce Shepherd, society rep, stating the group would work through the weekend tabulating results and prepare for next week's meeting with Eric Foster, MLA.

"(Bruce) would not speculate on how many signatures have been received," offers the newspaper.

Mr. Shepherd was quoted to say "Total-wise, I think we're good.  If you look at the turnouts for the last few elections, for what we did I think we have a good turnout compared to those."

Excellent point.

In fact, low numbers might even be better.

Huh?
How so?

Look back at voter turnout during the City of Vernon elections in 2011...a dismal 31% of eligible voters chose to exercise their right.

Only slightly higher, the District of Coldstream saw a 33% voter turnout that year, down a staggering 19% from the 2008 local election.

How could a low turnout/signatures be considered a good thing?

Well, scientists and researchers have concluded that a high turnout is generally seen as evidence of the legitimacy of the current system.

So, the natural extension then--as it applies to the amalgamation petition--is that a low collection of signatures is evidence of dissatisfaction with the current system.

Or is that a double negative?

Even Wikipedia knows amalgamation--or the newer word "unification"--is cheaper:    "The act of merging two or more municipalities into a single new municipality may be done for a variety of reasons, including urban growth, reducing the cost of local government and improving the efficiency of municipal service delivery."


A big tip of the wine glass to officials of the Society for the Future Governance of Greater Vernon. 

"Their work has only just begun," offers Kia.

Comments from the online petition are listed in this blog entry started on September 12, 2013.