It would appear that it all depends on who you talk to when it comes to planning tax rate hikes for Prince Rupert residents. And judging by the voting patterns of Podunk council at a special budget session on Monday night, not everyone is on the same page or hanging out with the same crowd.
With Councillor Sheila Gordon Payne unavailable for the special session of city council on Monday night, the prospect of a five per cent tax increase for Prince Rupert residents suffered a temporary setback.
With Councillor Gordon-Payne unavailable to vote, the required three readings for a bylaw approving the five per cent tax increase was defeated, with the vote ending in a 3-3 tie. Which in civic politics apparently means the run goes to the taxpayer…
( from the blog a town called podunk, click on the link below to see the entire article atowncalledpodunk.blogspot.com/2 … 0304 )-
But if my memory serves me well the Mayor is able to break the tie. I seem to remember something like that being in place.
That’s normally true, when the number of councillors are even I guess, with one councillor absent that meant five councillors and one mayor voted, the Mayor using his vote to go in favour of increased taxes making the session a draw.
He’ll try again on Monday when council sits next, kind of like a parliamentary confidence vote we’ll probably see all the councillors in attendance! Which means most likely the five per cent tax rate will be a go, unless councillor Gordon-Payne has a change of mind…
To all of you who are wondering what the outcome is going to be, yes they made their decision last Monday night. Councillor Gordon-Payne agrees that the taxes need to go up, but didn’t to me satisfy the reasons behind her decision. Frankly, it is a “hold the line” budget, and we can expect that no improvements will again happen this year. Rather than looking at the true picture, these Councillors are sadly failing us all… What they are truly missing is the vision to focus on what is going to happen in the future. They have had three years, and some of them have been on Council for 2 or more terms, and they still haven’t been able to recognize the real problems here - we need money to fix our problems; not just talk. I am not the first person who has said this, and I won’t be the last to tell you that we would be better off selling City West to get ourselves back in the black. With what is going on in the markets, I believe that we need to act quickly…