Editor, The News:

Re: Way out of touch (News Views, Oct. 14).

I’m fed up with our council raising our taxes far above the rate of inflation every year.

According to the Bank of Canada, inflation over the past five years has been a total of 9.25 per cent, yet Maple Ridge council has raised taxes by 26 per cent during the same period. The annual property tax bill we all dread receiving now forms a significant expense for many homeowners – equivalent to one or two months of mortgage payments. I can’t imagine how someone living on a fixed income and owning a home can manage.

Council needs to be reminded that in this economic climate, the only people holding their own against inflation are those working for federal, provincial and municipal governments. Those working in the private sector (the real world) are subsidizing public sector employees’ job security, guaranteed wage increases and indexed pension plans, while slowing but surely falling behind.

Message to council: I want you to demonstrate some fiscal responsibility by passing a zero-increase budget for next year. Hell, show some real guts and reduce the municipal budget by five or 10 percent, to give taxpayers a break. That would mean actually prioritizing, placing critical infrastructure needs and emergency services first. If that results in the freezing of municipal wages and cutting of non-essential services and programs, then so be it.

Budget expenditures beyond the rate of inflation should require approval through a referendum.

Even though you think of us as such, we taxpayers are not bottomless pits of money that you can continually draw from.

B. Butler

Maple Ridge