Editor:
Re: New Westminster taxpayers facing a 5.28-per-cent tax increase in 2019, Record, Feb. 27
There are a fortunate few of us in New Westminster who bought homes when prices were realistic, worked our butts off to pay the debt off and are now retired.
Retirement for many, if not in most cases, means fixed and somewhat limited income. The decision to retire can involve estimating future tax increases which we hope are in the same range as the inflation rate.
Mayor Jonathan Cote’s announcement of 2019 rate increases dashed those hopes. A (proposed) 5.28-per-cent increase in property taxes, a seven-per-cent increase in water rates (we can’t do without water) and a 12-per-cent increase in sewer rates.
Match that to the fixed CPP monthly income, the slight annual adjustment if you receive the Old Age Pension and low returns on GICs these days and they don’t even come close to these increases.
One partial answer they suggest, of course, is to defer your property taxes. Why should that essentially become a mandatory decision? And when city council votes themselves decadent salary and expense increases, they expect us to just lay down and suck it up and, of course, we could just sell and rent, couldn’t we?
A larger question is when did the city ever do an efficiency study on the employees and systems, or does the union agreement prohibit that?
Bill Davis, New Westminster
