Dear editor:
Our Mayor and Council could easily give you a Christmas Gift.
Yes, it maybe not be believable, but I believe it could be done.
A further one per cent reduction in your 2024 Property Tax to 4.1%.
Our seniors, citizens on fixed or low incomes, families and small businesses are making these decisions everyday.
When one looks at the City’s operating costs excluding RCMP, Fire Department, Bylaw and City’s Officers, the City’s net operating costs are approximately $44 million, a 1% reduction in costs is $425,000.
Surely without a tremendous amount of work I believe the $425,000 or 1% could be easily achieved, for example the 2024 Budget for the Mayor & Council is $304,629 a 7.1% increase if they reduced that by 1% or $3,046 they will still an increase of 6.1%. Another example is the Office of the City Manager where their 2024 budget is $446,144 an increase of 7.3%.,
If they just reduced their budget by 1% it would amount to $4,461 and their budget would still be an increase of 6.2%.
If the Mayor and city manager show this leadership I believe the other senior executive and their teams could find their 1%. Once this done I would like to believe this would passed along to you.
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
If you would like to share your thoughts with Mayor & Council just email them at. council@penticton.ca.
Rick Thorpe
Penticton