Vic Derman states, “Eventually, Saanich needs a way, at some point, to moderate the need for property tax increases.” Saanich is, in fact, long overdue for the need to moderate tax increases. In the last five years, property taxes have increased nearly 25 per cent.
One has to wonder what the increases will be once we have to factor in the enormous costs of sewage treatment. We’d better brace ourselves for double-digit annual increases unless some serious budget cutting is done immediately, not eventually or at some point.
Considering how overpaid the recently fired CAO was and the fact that a recent study concluded wages and benefits paid to municipal employees were 30 per cent higher than equivalent private sector compensation, a good place to start would be a review of the wages and benefits paid throughout the system.
I’m not holding my breath.
Christine Benn
Saanich