With Prince Rupert city council adopting its property tax bylaw at Monday night’s council meeting, the reality of taxes going up once again in Prince Rupert has arrived.
While council makes its plans on how best to allocate those new found revenues, the folks at the other end of the financial delivery system are beginning to make a bit of noise over the annual ritual of increasing the city’s take.
One such local, weighed in on the pages of the Daily News letter to the editor, outlining his frustration with council, the city and their handling of our financial affairs.
On City taxes…
While council makes its plans on how best to allocate those new found revenues, the folks at the other end of the financial delivery system are beginning to make a bit of noise over the annual ritual of increasing the city’s take.
One such local, weighed in on the pages of the Daily News letter to the editor, outlining his frustration with council, the city and their handling of our financial affairs.
On City taxes…
Letter to the Editor
Prince Rupert Daily News
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Page four
To the Editor,
Yet again we face another tax hike here in Prince Rupert. Its not enough for our councillors to discuss that our proposed tax rate for this year is not as high as some of the other municipalities in this region. Our tax rate is several points higher than everyone else, and it just continues to grow each year, in fact we pay some of the highest taxes anywhere in Canada.
And with Citytel kicking in $1,000,000 less each year, and our cruise terminal costing us money as opposed to producing money, we are in tough shape. The unfortunate part of it, is the money yet again has to continue to come from its citizens here in town.
We all know that for a town of this size that we have fantastic amenities, and these were voted for by our citizens. Its just frustrating, as the reason the city is in the position it is in presently is because of poor management a few years ago, which our present council for the most part has inherited.
We spent millions we were never going to receive. Even today the city is hesitant to take over the Sun Wave pulp mill site. Had we had possession of it several years ago, at least our City could have sold off its many assets for tax dollars.
The present owners have been stripping this site of millions of dollars for the last couple of years, and the City sits idly aside, hoping that Sun Wave will honour their contract, and pay its taxes. How much longer are we going to wait?
Ever since this mill went down, it has been so poorly looked after by our city representatives. This site as contaminated” as it may be, will be a highly sought after piece of real-estate.
It has a fantastic harbour and wharf head, great rail and road access, two huge water supply pipes.....it goes on and on. Lets be more proactive, and quite taking it up the you know what!
Your citizens are tired of these long standing issues, which never seem to come to a resolve. If anyone on council really believes there is even a remote chance that this pulp mill will reopen, then I think its time you take a tour of the facility and become educated!
Mark Rudderham
To the Editor,
Yet again we face another tax hike here in Prince Rupert. Its not enough for our councillors to discuss that our proposed tax rate for this year is not as high as some of the other municipalities in this region. Our tax rate is several points higher than everyone else, and it just continues to grow each year, in fact we pay some of the highest taxes anywhere in Canada.
And with Citytel kicking in $1,000,000 less each year, and our cruise terminal costing us money as opposed to producing money, we are in tough shape. The unfortunate part of it, is the money yet again has to continue to come from its citizens here in town.
We all know that for a town of this size that we have fantastic amenities, and these were voted for by our citizens. Its just frustrating, as the reason the city is in the position it is in presently is because of poor management a few years ago, which our present council for the most part has inherited.
We spent millions we were never going to receive. Even today the city is hesitant to take over the Sun Wave pulp mill site. Had we had possession of it several years ago, at least our City could have sold off its many assets for tax dollars.
The present owners have been stripping this site of millions of dollars for the last couple of years, and the City sits idly aside, hoping that Sun Wave will honour their contract, and pay its taxes. How much longer are we going to wait?
Ever since this mill went down, it has been so poorly looked after by our city representatives. This site as contaminated” as it may be, will be a highly sought after piece of real-estate.
It has a fantastic harbour and wharf head, great rail and road access, two huge water supply pipes.....it goes on and on. Lets be more proactive, and quite taking it up the you know what!
Your citizens are tired of these long standing issues, which never seem to come to a resolve. If anyone on council really believes there is even a remote chance that this pulp mill will reopen, then I think its time you take a tour of the facility and become educated!
Mark Rudderham
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