No more blank cheques

On this year’s Lake Country ballot, residents will be asked to approve a $6.6 million loan to fund a new fire hall. Mayor Baker claims if approved the cost will add to our property taxes $90 per year for 20 years based on the average home value of $656,000.

Based on past performance, the true cost will likely be far greater than $90 annually and the payments will continue forever and not for the stated 20 years. Residents need to remember how the words were twisted and the tax was applied from the last referendum before making a decision or you will end up giving council another blank cheque.

Remember the pitch from 2015, $27 per year for 20 years to pay a loan of $2.5 million for the Rail Trail? For starters, the real amount that our mayor borrowed for that purchase was $5.15 million. Baker used the $2.5 million number to soft sell the purchase by playing a word game and implying that the $2.65 million provided by Kelowna was an investment in our portion and that there was an option as to whether we reimbursed Kelowna. The Memorandum of Agreement with Kelowna clearly stated that they wanted to be repaid as soon as possible and that it was an interest free loan for three years and then interest would be applied. An honest referendum question should have sought approval to borrow $5.15 million because that’s what Baker really borrowed. 

Now, in regards to the $27 for 20 years. Had there been a separate line on our property taxes listing that payment so it could be removed after year 20, we would have gotten what was approved in the referendum if you don’t take into consideration the unapproved $2.65 million Kelowna loan. Sadly, what Baker and council did was to add the Rail Trail assessment onto our tax base and hide it so that with every future year's inevitable tax increase that percentage also gets applied to the original $27, causing the tax portion for the Rail Trail purchase to increase with each passing year. Even worse, the payment will never go away. It will just keep growing annually forever. Definitely not how the purchase was pitched to the public when seeking approval.

So now the three years is up, and where is the $2.65 million to come from to repay Kelowna? Expect a hefty tax increase next spring. Baker claimed there were excess lands associated with the rail line that could be sold off, and now he’s scrambling to find properties to sell. Lake Country also added a $125 annual road levy onto our property taxes that commenced two years ago which will also be there forever given the poor state of our roads. Now Baker wants us to approve another $6.6 million 20 year loan. 

When does the taxation insanity stop? Remember all the millions of dollars that our mayor envisioned the Rail Trail was going to bring into the local coffers? Why not build a new fire hall with those proceeds?

We desperately need some new blood in city hall, a fresh mayor and some new councillors who are transparent and in the future present any request for funding by providing all the facts and allow the constituents to cast their votes based on the merits and honest cost of the project without having to read between the lines and wonder how our local government could manipulate the referendum results in order to tax and borrow more than what was approved.

Although I see the merits of a new fire hall, I will not vote to give Baker and the existing council another blank cheque because based on their past performance, $90 will only be for the first year with it escalating every future year and to them a 20 year tax really means for eternity. 

Guy Bissonnette, Lake Country