Dear Editor
The $100 million isn’t a surprise, your city council just isn’t telling you about it.
Where has this unplanned $100 million come from? How could experienced city councillors not know about this? The answer is simple; however, we have yet to receive a full and honest explanation from our councillors.
Combine this surplus with councillors’ public claims that if they weren’t so good at managing things the ‘tax increase could have been as much as five per cent instead of three per cent’ in 2015, and we have a serious problem. Councillors are saying things that don’t add up at all with the reported city financials. The city councillors voted unanimously in favour to increase Burnaby’s total taxes by 8.6 per cent after getting an unplanned $100 million surplus (see the increase from $213.5 million in 2014 to $231.9 million in 2015, page 36 of the city financial plan). Not one councillor questioned this increase?
The city’s financial plan states: ‘If a surplus is realized at 2014 year end, the operating surplus will be made available as a funding source for one time expenditures in 2015, to help keep property taxes as low as possible.’ Is that just gobblie-goo language in a public document that these councillors don’t plan to honour? City councillors have demonstrated a complete lack of disclosure and transparency in the budget process, and their inaction is a callous disregard for setting a reasonable tax rate for all people and businesses in Burnaby.
So, where did this surplus come from? The majority of the $100 million has come from developers and development projects in the city. A large portion of cash comes in the form of ‘community benefit bonus funds’ or in short, a density bonus.
And, the reason why it looks like a surprise to all of us is that your councillors have chosen to exclude this from the city’s annual budget process.
Your councillors have not disclosed to us in their budgets what they have known at the start of the year: that development is happening, and the city is getting something from all this development including cash. That developer cash will be received, but if they budgeted for these monies then it wouldn’t look reasonable to keep raising your taxes so much.
This is a lack of transparency.
The City of Burnaby should allocate the unplanned $100 million back to families and small businesses by not raising their taxes, actually help with affordable housing, begin to tackle homelessness seriously, fix Burnaby’s sidewalks, give all non-profits equitable tax exemptions, build community gardens, hire more police officers and dedicate funds to show both the province and the federal government we are serious about a new Burnaby hospital.
This is all possible. Please show some leadership and compassion.
Daren Hancott, 2014 City of Burnaby mayoral candidate
