A Compelling Letter to Editor

Tax Shakedown

Bob Gendron's letter in the Wednesday, Jan. 17, Vernon Morning Star politely shed light on the municipal money shuffle, the wee brother of the provincial and federal shakedown.

As I have lost my PC-ness, I am going to write what a lot of us struggling common folk are thinking but may be afraid to say.  Many people's bread is buttered from those hollowed(sic) halls even if their conscience isn't.  I have nothing to lose and only a few future parking tickets to gain (if I could find a parking spot).

Our services provided by the city/municipalities are directly inverse to the exorbitant salaries and pensions paid to the participants of government largess.  The cost to do private business with permitting, "consulting", red tape regulations and restrictions is off the charts because the government hates competition and can damn well do as they please.

Such as not putting in a simple traffic light at 1/20 the cost of plowing a road through a beautiful green space and eventually a traffic problem 20 times worse.

See how "I am from the government and here to help" inversion works?

Our old roads are a travesty and the new ones reconstructed (or plowed through a bird sanctuary) have abysmal planning.  I avoid the downtown core like the plague.

Good luck trying to sell me a house on 20th St. or Allenby with a four-wide skateboard track running through the parking spots.

Snow plowing is based on the budget--how much is left over from compensation clauses--instead of safety.  I am not riding my 10-speed through misplaced snow banks five months of the year while Fortis tags me for another $40 a month courtesy of a global warming bureaucrat making four times more than I do.

Or where one arm of the government forces $20 million spent on a water plant only to have another army say:  "No, not good enough, upgrade for $50 million".  Too bad, so sad for Joe Taxpayer trying to make ends meet in the 9th worst city for crime in Canada.  If I hear one more time from the city human resources or the controller that we need to pay these people "competitively" to bring in the best, I might choke.  Mr. Gendron, there is a reason it is called 'City Haul'."

Jay Langdon

Can't say I disagree with most of his letter.

"Recognize your town in that description?" Kia would've said.

 Several, in fact.