In 1935, average personal income was $313 per year. Milk cost 10 cents per quart (0.95 litres) and a dozen eggs would set you back 31 cents.
Twenty-five years later, in 1960, average personal income was $1,672 per year. Milk was 24 cents per quart and it cost 55 cents to purchase a dozen eggs.
In 1979 the median household income was $16,461. A first class stamp cost 15 cents; a gallon of regular gas was 86 cents and a dozen eggs 85 cents.
The cost of a new vehicle in 1978 was between $5,500 and $6,400, depending on the vehicle. Compare this to 2018; a gallon of gas would cost you about $5 and the price of a new car has risen to $36,100.
In 1979, Penticton City Council and West Bench struck a deal. West Bench would pay an annual stipend of $20,000 for facility use in Penticton. Subsequent councils have let the taxpayers of Penticton down. They failed to ensure this contract was updated to cover the costs of annual provisioning of an expanded array of recreational facilities; increased sophistication of equipment plus labour intensive construction costs in producing these services.
While increasing the tax burden to Pentictonites and ignoring the cost of providing recreational services to the surrounding areas successive, Penticton councils have created a situation where the satellite communities think we owe them. They make full use of our varied recreational facilities and pay half the property taxes of Penticton taxpayers. They take use of Penticton facilities for granted. They think we owe them.
No one respects a sap.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, as it now stands, is a bad deal for Pentictonites. We pay too much and do not get enough back. While Penticton council has brought this subject up with the RDOS a few times in the last decade chairperson Karla Kozakevich claims it never reached a formal request level.
Why? Because the satellite community directors always shot the idea down claiming their residents would not support it.
So the satellite communities get off scot free, or pay in 1979 dollars, for limited services while Penticton taxpayers’ groan under the increasing tax bill for city recreational services.
Elvena Slump
Penticton