It is with disappointment to read the news of Bart Slotman, vice-president of the Uptown Property Group, forming an Uptown New Westminster Business Improvement Area (UNWBIA) with the support of mayor and council. (Re: Uptown eyes a new future, The Record, Jan. 24.)
As a business owner on Sixth Street that may likely be subject to this additional tax/levy from the property owner, I have heard nothing other than what is in the paper. I reviewed the online application published in the city council pages. With respect to the individuals at the heart of this organization, this is not without some glaring challenges.
Who and what is the UNWBIA? Where have the meetings been held? When was the steering committee formed? What are the bylaws of the organization? Who are the members? When did the executive directors get elected and when was the AGM? Who registered this as a non-profit society and why? Why have we not been notified of the details for forming a UNWBIA other than in the paper?
We already pay a separate business licence and property tax in our rent. Our taxes already pay for street maintenance, beautification and various other items they propose to do with this new levy/tax. Who set the levy (taxation) rate of $386/20 ft. and what is it based on? Will the Royal City Centre and Westminster Centre pay $386/20 ft for all of their storefront?
Will non-profits have to pay this new levy/tax? I am amazed that the city is pushing this through in less than four months to take effect on July 1. Many businesses budget for a year at a time and may not have taken a tax increase into consideration this year.
What is further worrisome is this so called "funding mechanism," no administration (yet their own budget calls for $14,800 in administration costs - 12 per cent of the budget), no office and no accountability for $171,600?
So who writes the cheques, receives the tax money and decides where it should be spent? I note that they are proposing to be an outreach organization, but I can tell you plenty of us already do that within the city. In a much more positive way than has been done by the likes of Mr. Slotman, Royal City Centre and this group.
With the city scrutinizing the Hyack Festival Association, is this a good time to entertain a mandate by a self-appointed group of people?
Who will own Uptown Live - the UNWBIA, Bart Slotman, Uptown Property Group, Uptown Business Association of New Westminster or another unnamed organization? UNWBIA is requesting to tax businesses for $11,000 for Uptown Live, however Uptown Business Association (who is the UBA? Is it part of the UNWBIA?) is asking the city for $28,000 cash and $20,000 in-kind for the same event, a total of $59,000.
With the mounting pressure of increases in water, sewer, garbage disposal, hydro, communications and a potential 2.5 per cent rise in property taxes, just how will this affect our businesses? Add that onto the increasing costs of doing business and well, I wonder will this push small independent businesses out of the market? This is clearly an issue of taxation without representation.
"No taxation without representation" was a slogan in the 1750s and one of the major causes of the American Revolution. Seriously, is this how far back we have gone? Why has the city evoked, from the community charter, Division 5, Section 213, the negative response, rather than Section 212, the positive response, for the approval process? It's similar to the negative option for the $59 million borrowing bill, last summer. Shouldn't this group have to prove businesses want a BIA rather than subjecting businesses that don't want it to pressure from proponents that do?
For a mayor and council that purports to be so positive, why the negative option?
This process requires that 50 per cent will have to register as against to oppose the bylaw. Will the UNWBIA and the city inform offshore property owners in less than 30 days when all they have to do is put a notice in the paper?
Who will help the merchants that oppose this to defray the cost of time, printing and business to get the facts out? Further, how many property owners care about an additional tax when all they have to do is pass it along to retailers locked into a long-term lease? Section 212 would have placed the proponents of a UNWBIA to provide 50 per cent support in order to approve this additional tax!
It's my belief the UNWBIA and/or the Uptown Business Association of New Westminster (unsure of which one or perhaps both) need to exist for a year.
Is this not the city's own policy on funding new organizations?
Let them prove they can properly communicate with businesses, open up these meetings and demonstrate the benefits of further taxation on companies still struggling to stay open.
If this is approved while so many questions exist, one can only hope the damage it may cause can be reversed in time with a new mayor and council come November.
James Crosty is the owner of Root Source Inc. in New Westminster.
