How Coldstream Went Bust

...could be the headline in a few years.

This Knowledge Network special (Tuesday, January 15, 2013 Bell Expressvu Satellite) should be required watching for all bureaucrats and elected officials.

You'd think local governments would be antsy about acquiring any new debt.
Nope. 
Not Coldstream, not Vernon.

Coldstream's Mayor Garlick and Council must feel they're above it all, as they've never had to spend money (from "uncollectible" property taxes, as provided for in this example from Kelowna, or this Yellowknife bylaw) which, in effect, is the budget equivalent to bailing out a corporation or individual.

There's hardly anyone left in Coldstream to "bail out";  Consumers Glass is gone.  Tolko has asked for property tax concessions in the communities where they operate, Coldstream's mayor has decided he doesn't like the idea of the former Consumers Glass property being divided into smaller pieces, just in case Hollywood needs a film set (*groan*)...so there the complex will sit, a roost for pigeons.

This from the mayor whose administration spent $16,000 to landscape a couple of traffic islands at Kal General Store!!  Sixteen thousand dollars!  To landscape a couple of 30-foot islands!

We don't have the Big Three auto manufacturers here, the Feds bailed them out in Ontario.

And our banks are safer than those in the U.S., if you believe the pundits.

Yet the Letters to the Editor continue, likely falling on elected officials' blind eyes.

This one is from Garry Haas, published by the Morning Star on January 2nd, 2013:

"Well, the mayor and council are trying to sell us this budget from his financial manager as holding the line and the best they can do.  How naive do they really think us, the taxpayers -- the people who voted you into office -- are?

To start with, the online version is 527 pages (no wonder the photocopiers are getting old).  Let's get rid of the glossy pictures and all of the pie charts and condense the paperwork.

If you published this thing for people to read, you are going to break the bank for publishing it.

The plan states that the raise rate is 1.9 per cent.  Does this include:

The hospital is asking for an increase of 13.9 for in(sic) indeterminate number of years, amounting to they say $10 per household, but this is based on last years assessments.

In order to fund future infrastructure upgrades, (administrator Will Pearce) is recommending council raise taxes at least 1.9 per cent a year, for the next 10 years in order to build up a pool of funds.

Administration also recommends council initiate a dedicated 1.9 per cent tax rate increase, to be cumulative for 10 years (that is 1.9 per cent dedicated tax rate increases each year for the 10 years proposed) in order to build the financial capacity of the city to deal with looming infrastructure issues.

Plus, the automatic wage and benefit increases for all union employees.  Do you have the nerve to put this number out for everyone to see?

There was $570,000 to demolish the old Coldstream hotel site.  He came to his senses and stopped it.  Add the sports complex that he is hoping to have built.

To do this they are suggesting:
Raise some of the rates at the pool.  This is the only place some people and the elderly can go and get exercise at a reasonable rate.
Raise the parking meter rates, the fines that go along with this and the weekly and monthly lot rates.  Well you might as well ring the death toll for downtown because nobody will want to go down (there) and shop or eat because of the extra cost.  Those that work in the downtown area will not be able to afford the high cost of parking.

Why do just about all the departments have a food and coffee account?  Are we supplying all employees with coffee and snacks?  Most of these are new in this budget.

Suggest reducing road sweeping, then why do you have a request for a new sweeper in this budget?

Now is the time to e-mail, write or call the mayor, council members and the regional district directors and let them know that we do not want increases in our taxes.  We want to get our debts paid off before we go bankrupt as is happening in other counties(sic), even Canada."
Garry Haas

In the same isssue of the local paper, a Chuck Johnson wrote a Letter to the Editor, entitled "Labour Under Attack".  Obviously pro-labour, Mr. Johnson suggests instead of placing the blame for all things financial on high union wages, that it's "time to register churches and put all of their financial information on the website so we can see how they are spending money...next...go after law societies, medical associations and then accounting organizations....with all their tax-free information...we will all breathe a lot better."  

Mr. Johnson concludes:  "...if you really want transparency, go after the big guy.  Now is the time to go after the big guy, the one percent who really do make government policy in their back rooms and present it to you through lobbying groups.  Through the loop holes in the tax act, they get away with billions that could put our country on stable financial ground.  Share the wealth.

The 100 highest paid chief executives whose companies are listed on the S&P/TSX composite index made an average of $8.38 million in 2010.  This is 289 times more than the average Canadian makes in a year.  In 1998, the top 100 CEOs were paid 105 times the average wage.

The playing field is definitely tilted in the favour of the wealthy.  We are hungry and have no one except unions to speak to the disparity of wages.  The playing field that is tilted to the wealthiest.  Why is it you and your government want to destroy the working man and their voice in the unions...?"

A subsequent newspaper issue had this headline emblazoned across the front page:

"Referendum costs cut by $1 million."

"So maybe they're listening," offers Kia.
 The borrowing by local governments will continue.
 Because they believe their own propaganda about "broad powers".
Local governments think they're immune.

Because they just don't get it!