While many are trying to stretch their dollars and pinch their pennies to cope with a recession that is over according to the pundits and politicians, the City of Victoria has its own “Happy New Year” gift to its 78,000 residents.

 

 

This little bit of “lagniappe” comes in the form of a 4.3 percent hike in property taxes this year, (or roughly an extra $17 per 100,000 in assessed property values), in spite of the fact that there are no plans for new city programs or services.

 

But wait, there’s more belt-tightening news on the way for taxpayers. They can expect to shell out a compounded tax increase of 24 percent or more over the next five years to the City, which will likely dwarf the expected provincial and federal government tax dollars from individuals needed to pay for a ballooning public deficit and debt. And, word has it that the economists expect consumers to step up to the plate and spend like there’s no tomorrow, not to mention mortgage their futures in order to save an ark filled with termites. Sounds like a great plan eh?

 

The city currently operates on an annual budget of $190 million, of which close to half represent salaries and benefits for city staff and police, while the remainder is devoted to sustaining its physical operations.

 

The capital city of British Columbia is certainly a jewel in the eye of its many millions of tourists, but it desperately needs more funds to finance a host of infrastructure projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars such as seismic upgrades to city facilities, repairs to its century old sewage pipes, not to mention refurbishments of a blue bridge and perhaps the Crystal Pool.

 

How to finance operating expenses that continue to grow faster than inflation and that are quickly depleting the city’s reserve fund, is a dilemma that elected officials, city staff and taxpayers must grapple with during the month of March (which is when the city’s budget is reviewed).

 

Maybe it’s time to dust off those hair-brained ideas, you know the new diamond-studded downtown destination spot, yup, that 24-hour-a-day floating casino in the Inner Harbor? Perhaps Disney could help us turn Beacon Hill Park into a fun-filled “heritage” theme park, (plus one humongous map of BC)? Or, how about demolishing all those dilapidated apartments in James Bay and replacing them with multi-million dollar high-rise condos, that’s right the ones with those panoramic views minus the cruise ships for those folks fleeing from the blizzards, bears and badlands of Alberta?